The House of Hades
by Sam Takusi
Summary: (This is how I think HoH will turn out). Following the events of MoA, the remaining six must travel to Epirus, but what is this curse of Juno that Jason aquires, and what is this 'Last Centurion' that Nico is Hades-bent on finding. Read on to find out...
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N: this is how I think HoH will turn out. I do not own PJO and HoO. POVs are Leo, Hazel, Jason and Annabeth. Please read and review, it's gonna be awesome)**

**Heroes of Olympus: the House of Hades**

Foes bear arms at the Doors of Death

An oath to keep with a final breath

Two half-bloods bear a hero's curse

With heroes' blood the king is nursed

A giant clad in a molten gown

The Eldest rise where shadows drown

I

Leo

Before the Argo II crashed into the Italian countryside, Leo was feeling very confident. He had sworn to wreak vengeance on Gaea. He had repaired the flying ship as best as he could, and with the help of Festus the bronze dragon head he had steered the ship away from the carnage in Rome towards the east, towards Greece. He had been psyching himself up for his next encounter with old Dirt Face, which of course came sooner than expected. He had just been thinking of creative ways of wreaking said vengeance on the grandmother of the gods (and my great great grandmother, he realised with sudden horror) when everything went wrong. The ship jolted suddenly and listed on the starboard side. The hull creaked and the celestial bronze groaned as if they were in some Olympian construction site. Hazel came rushing into the helm, followed closely by a staggering Nico.

"What's happening?" she asked with a horrified look.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "The ship is sinking. The anti-gravity generators seem to be working just fine. Something is pulling the Argo to the ground."

"Gaea," Leo heard Nico say, and he swallowed hard. It felt like clay from an Earthborn's fist was lodged in his throat. As much as he wanted make Gaea wish she had never messed with Leo Valdez, she was still very powerful, and she was using that power to destroy them, and more importantly, his ship. He turned to Hazel.

"I think I know what's going on. The ship is under some sort of magnetic attraction." Leo pictured a giant horseshoe magnet with cartoon squiggly lines between it and the Argo and a zapping sound. The thought didn't relieve the growing horror in the pit of his stomach.

"I thought magnets only attracted ferrous metals, not celestial bronze," Hazel countered.

Despite the imminent danger looming over them, Leo managed to give her the- thanks for the science lecture Miss Metal Detector- look.

"Celestial bronze is magical. Who knows, maybe there is a celestial magnet out there."

Hazel looked less convinced. The ship lurched again, sending a shudder across the hull. Nico gripped a control panel with pale hands and held on for dear life.

"Look, it doesn't matter," Leo continued. "Can't you try to, like, destroy it or something? Or at least pull it out of the ground."

Hazel closed her eyes. It was almost comical seeing her trying to keep her balance with her eyes closed on the now slanted floorboards. Her brow furrowed slightly as she moved her arms about, trying to keep herself balanced.

"I can sense enchanted metal throughout the whole of Rome. It's like Gaea stroked the whole city with a giant magnet and all the bits and pieces of metal under the earth got magnetised. The entire city is pulling us down."

Leo set the ship's thrusters to vertical ascent with full power. The Argo righted itself again, but shuddered from the overwhelming magnetic pull.

"Brilliant!" he exclaimed sarcastically. "First Percy and Annabeth, now this. Whose side are you on Tyche!"

Hurried footsteps sounded, announcing the arrival of Jason, Piper and Frank. Unfortunately for Frank, the thrusters got overwhelmed by the magnetic pull at that moment and the ship went for a nosedive, causing Frank to fall and skid across the helm, only to crash on the far row of control panels.

"Frank, you okay?" Jason asked the burly guy. Jason had managed to stop himself and Piper from following Frank's path by holding on to the side of the entrance with one arm with the other around Piper's waist. Leo had grabbed Hazel by the arm at the last second and held on to the wheel, reanacting the Percy-Annabeth-hanging-off-the-edge scenario, only this fall was diagonal and not leading to Tartarus. Luckily for Nico, he was already on the far side of the helm so he only had to hold on some more to stop himself from banging his head on the control panel. Frank appeared to have a small gash on his forehead, but was otherwise unhurt.

"I'm good," Frank replied. He tried to get up, but he pressed the control panel buttons and was shocked to the ground as a loud and totally not scenario-appropriate dubstep track sounded across the helm. Frank shouted something towards Leo which was drowned by the hammering base beats of the dubstep track.

"I can't hear you!" Leo shouted back. "Turn the music off!"

Frank didn't seem to hear what Leo was saying, but his face alighted in what Leo could guess was a lightbulb idea. He opted for charades. His arms flailed about in patterns that Leo couldn't understand. Leo gave him a quizzical look. Frank seemed to be making many beckoning signs. Leo guessed that he wanted him to drop Hazel so he could catch her. Leo inhaled deeply.

"Sorry, Hazel!" he shouted to a confused Hazel, and opened his hand. As she fell, the dubstep track came to a sudden halt with only the soft undertones sounding, and he heard her scream at the top of her lungs. With strange (and awesome, Leo thought) coincidence, the track started again the moment Hazel was caught by Frank, resulting in the base beat dropping as Hazel dropped on Frank's arms.

With his now free hand, Leo reached into his tool belt and pulled out his Wii controller. He silenced the music and turned the thrusters from ascent to forward mode. Fortunately for them, the thrusters had prevented a very fast descent, but the ship had lost a lot of altitude. The ship now moved at a diagonal, it was moving forward and falling at the same time with Festus' head reaching downwards. Leo knew that the ship was going to crash, he just didn't want it crashing in the middle of Rome and killing innocent mortals. The Argo was low enough to touch the peak of the Empire State building, the mortal peak that is. He pushed the thrusters to full throttle and craned his neck as he turned to Jason.

"Jason, help me out here," he said. "Summon a freak storm to get us out of here."

Jason nodded, summoned the winds, flew down and placed Piper next to Nico and flew himself out of the helm towards the back of the ship. Leo heard a rumble of thunder and felt the ship gain more speed. He turned to Frank.

"Dude, get out there. We need to reduce the weight on the ship."

Frank frowned, looking offended. Leo realised then what he had just said.

"No, I mean go out there and start throwing things overboard. Throw out everything," Leo thought for a bit, "except for Archimedes' sphere and my grilled cheese sandwich on the table in the mess hall."

Frank turned into an osprey and flew out of the helm. Leo wrestled with his Wii control while he tried, and failed, to pull himself up on to the wheel. Who knew gym class would be useful in a life or death situation, he thought grimly. Jason came flying in and hovered next to Leo. He looked worried with a hint of exhaustion.

"I can't lift the ship, Leo," he said. "Gaea's magic is too strong. We have to abandon ship."

Leo shook his head weakly, but he knew there was no other choice.

"I'll come back for you and Hazel," Jason continued.

"No need," Leo said. "Go on ahead, I'll get Hazel. And Nico."

Jason didn't look convinced, but he nodded and flew out after grabbing Piper. Leo looked outside through the front viewing panel above Hazel's head. The ship was now flying above a field in the outskirts of Rome. He could see a bunch of sheep grazing lazily on the short green grass. A sweater of sheep, he joked to himself half heartedly. A sudden feeling of dread crept up on him as he realised that the ship was going to fall on these sheep. Fortunately, they saw it coming and scattered across the field, but away from harm's way (**A/N: no sheep were harmed during the making of this fic, except for the lamb chop I'm eating for dinner**). The ship was now dangerously close to the ground. Leo had to act fast.

He shoved the Wii controller back to his tool belt, put two fingers of his now free hand in his mouth and blew out a shrill whistle. Moments later Buford the automaton table came zooming in, leaving Leo glad that he had fixed it when he could. He jumped on it and told it to head for the two children of the Underworld. He pulled Nico onto the table where Nico sat with his legs dangling over the side. Leo extended a hand towards Hazel, sparing her a small chuckle.

"What?" she asked incredulously.

"Nothing," he said, still smiling. "It's just that… your hair looks like you were electrocuted-by lightning-made by Jason."

She scowled at him, letting him pull her up while her other hand went to her dishevelled hair where she used her fingers as a makeshift comb.

"Your hair looks pretty wild itself," she countered and they both laughed as the table zoomed to the helm's exit. It flew over the quarterdeck and over the rails. Leo saw Jason floating with Piper a small distance away, looking grimly towards the ship. Frank was a giant eagle and he had various junk in his claws and beak. Leo turned to look at Hazel. She was having a whispered conversation with Nico, who was clutching her hand. His pale knuckles look strange over her coffee brown hand, and their heads were the same level, reminding Leo that they were about the same age. Leo looked back at the Argo II.

"Wait," he heard Nico say. "Where's the satyr."

"Coach Hedge!" Jason shouted.

Coach Hedge came running on the quarterdeck, brandishing the remote control as a weapon in front of him. He shouted, "Geronimo!" and leaped of the railing. Frank dropped everything he was carrying and dove to catch the adrenaline-pumped satyr.

Leo watched the Argo II's final seconds in the air and cried internally as the ship ploughed into the soft brown-black earth.

"My ship…" he muttered weakly.

"Leo, it'll be OK," Hazel said. "We can fix it."

Leo assessed the damage. The celestial bronze hull was contorted and ripped out beneath Festus. The dragon head looked less damaged than the rest of the ship, but he hung still and unmoving. There was a large rip through the centre of the ship, all glass and everything fragile was broken. Luckily, the box filled with Greek fire did not break, or else the Argo would have been totalled. It would take more than spit and grit and a lot of ductape to fix this.

"My ship…" he responded.

Leo's mind felt numb. His beautiful ship. Months of hard work. It was all gone. He remembered Hephaestus telling him that he could only forge connections with machines and not organic beings. Leo had found out he had the same problem. And he had forged a strong connection with the Argo. Jason might be his best friend, but he wouldn't feel this bad if he died. His hands, which he usually couldn't stop from twitching, were very still. Jason dropped to their level.

"Leo, I'm sorry man," Jason said. He opened his mouth to say more but he didn't seem to have anything more to say. Piper removed a hand from Jason's shoulder and patted Leo on his shoulder. The gesture depressed Leo even further. Frank circled the carnage, with Hedge muttering, "Great ship" in Frank's left claw.

"The statue." Jason seemed to have found his voice. Everyone turned their heads to the ship. Frank flew inside and they all held their breaths for a few seconds. He came out and started screeching something incoherent, though by the looks of things it was important.

"Is it broken?" Piper asked.

There was a rustle of head feathers and Leo realised what Big Bird was trying to say: No. Leo should have felt happy, but he didn't. At that moment he couldn't care less about the brewing war between the Roman and Greek demigods.

"Leo, land now," Jason said. "You too Frank. We need to discuss our next move, preferably around your table, Leo."

"No!" Nico exclaimed. "We can't travel over the earth. It's Gaea's territory. We have to fly to Epirus."

Leo looked at the son of Hades. He looked slightly better than he did when he first came out of his jar of imprisonment. Some colour had returned to his face, so it didn't look like he used milk as a face cream anymore, but it was still incredibly pale. He was a child of the Big Three. Hazel told Leo that she thought he was the most powerful demigod before she met Percy. And she had already met Jason. The twelve year old didn't radiate power like Percy and Jason did. In fact, he looked like he needed it, a lot of it. They said he could animate skeletons, but he looked like a skeleton himself. Leo tried to stop his voice from cracking.

"We can't travel hundreds of miles on a table, can we," he said. "I doubt Jason and Frank have enough energy to fly that far."

"Either way, looks like we gonna have walk," Jason said. "Until we find some way to fly to Greece."

"And where are we gonna find that, in some Roman flying-ship-for-hire store?" Leo's expression softened and he sighed. "I'm sorry Jason. It's just… it's been a long day for me."

Jason nodded. "It's been a long day for all of us." His face was suddenly more determined. In Annabeth and Percy's absence, he naturally took charge. "Right, lets all land and find ourselves transport."

Leo told the table to fly down where it landed on the soft grass. Jason landed next to them and Frank set Coach Hedge on the ground and he changed back to human. They all looked around, expecting a face to appear in the dirt, or monsters to ambush them, but they were met with savage bleating of sheep that were frightened by the crash.

Hazel and Nico hopped off the table (Well, Hazel did the hopping off, Nico climbed gingerly off) and Hazel stood in front of Jason. They had been friends in Camp Jupiter before he went to Camp Half-Blood, but now… not so much.

"How are you so sure we'll find magical transport in Italy?" she asked him.

Jason gave her a reassuring smile. "This is the homeland. We're bound to find something."

Hazel seemed worried about this "something" they would find. Leo got off the table and for a moment he felt like his old self.

"Don't worry Hazel," he said, smiling. "Italian monsters haven't met us; we're in charge of Homeland Security."


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N: Guys, here's chapter 2, enjoy and please review, it's gonna get awesome) **

II

Leo

Leo had built many things. He had fixed Festus the dragon when he had been a menace to camp, and had repaired him more times than he could count. He had even built the Argo II, a fantastic flying ship to ferry the Seven to the Ancient Lands. He couldn't get over how he could not repair the Argo, or at least build something to take them as far as the sea.

They were now marching through the Italian countryside, looking for any forms of life besides sheep. Jason had pressed them to leave the ship as quickly as they could, reasoning that they had to have some sort of time deadline to keep.

"We have to find a place with an internet café," he had said. "We have to find out about any upcoming Roman or Greek special days."

"I know great places with internet cafés," Leo had said. "We can go to Milan, or Barcelona, or Venice."

Piper had given him an _oh Leo _look, and had turned to Jason.

"We don't necessarily need internet," she had told him. "We can ask the locals."

"Yeah, except none of us speak Italian," Frank had observed.

"It's cool," Leo had said. "I can _hablo Española. _It's the same thing."

"I doubt any of them can speak Latin," Jason had said, half to himself.

"What about the statue," Hazel had asked. ""We can't just leave it here. It could get stolen or worse, Gaea might find it."

Jason had thought hard, chewing his bottom lip earnestly. "We can ask Chiron to send a retrieval team," he had said at last.

Piper had shaken her head. "To the Ancient Lands?" she had said. "I don't think so. Chiron wouldn't risk sending any campers here. Especially now when Camp faces invasion."

"It's worth a try," Leo had said, and fished for a drachma in his tool belt.

They had Iris messaged Chiron and asked him for a retrieval team.

"We can't spare any campers," he had said. "Argus spotted three giant eagles flying about a mile from here. The Romans must be nearby."

Leo, with Hazel's support, had suggested that Chiron enlist the help of Aphros, Bythos and their mer-heroes. Chiron had told them he would do everything he could, and wished them luck on their quest.

"Do we wait until help gets here?" Frank had asked.

"No," Jason had replied. "We have to move on." Jason had turned to the satyr. "Coach, can you look after the ship and the statue until the retrieval team gets here?"

Coach Hedge had nodded solemnly. "I can fix the TV and catch up on some MMA action. Relax cupcake, I'll take good care of the ship." After emotional good-byes in which Coach Hedge told them to leave or else he would beat them within an inch of their lives (whatever that meant), they set off, on foot, for Epirus.

Now Leo watched the sun inch closer to the horizon and wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. They had covered about a mile and the Argo was almost obscured from view. Leo was already tired and his feet hurt. He walked behind Jason and Piper who were having an intimate conversation which he would join now and then. Hazel walked beside him, absorbed in a conversation with Nico on her other side. Frank was off scouting for people, monsters and other things of interest. Leo looked ahead of him where Piper was in his line of sight. He had been convinced that Jason had always been part of their lives, but he had found out Hera had used the mist to make them think he was always there when he had only arrived on the day of their trip to the Grand Canyon. At first he found it hard to believe, but now he was starting to see through the mist. He was starting to remember…

_He was the first one to see her. He saw her come out of the black SUV that dropped off new kids at the Wilderness School every month or so. It also picked up kids who were seen as too troubled which were never to be seen again. Leo had been minding his own business, trying to keep his distance from the other kids when he saw her step out of the car. He watched her carefully. She was very pretty, but it looked like she was trying to downplay her good looks. Her hair was uneven, as though Machete had gone through her hair with, well-a machete. She had an unusual jacket on, even though the afternoon sun was blazing hot. Leo looked away. Pretty girls that were miles out of his league had always been his weakness, and he knew that with this girl he didn't stand the slightest chance. Oh well, he sighed to himself. Might as well be friendly. He walked over._

Leo was roused from his reverie when he saw a shape fly towards them at what looked like full speed. As it drew closer, Leo could identify what, or rather who, it was. He stuck out his finger, pointing at the dark shape of a bird which drew even closer.

"Up in the sky," he said. "Is it a bird? It's a plane, although-it's-clearly-a-bird-but-whatever. It's Super Frank."

Leo started to sing the Superman theme song until he observed Bird-Frank clearly. He was flying in zigzags, his wings fighting the air as he scrambled to reach the group. It was not Frank, however, who made Leo's eyes widen in horror. Frank wasn't trying to race to them, he was racing away from something. Or somethings. Leo swallowed nervously as he saw a swarm of creatures converging on Frank, and more importantly, on them. As they drew nearer, Leo could make out their hideous features. They looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, but with wings. They were bony and small (about one metre tall), and were vaguely humanoid with sharp talons, claws and teeth. Their bones could be visibly seen underneath their gray skin and thin but rippling muscles. No wonder they want to eat us, Leo thought. They probably haven't eaten anything for thousands of years. Their faces looked like someone stretched old and wrinkled latex over Halloween mini-skulls and stuck glowing red eyes in their sockets. From their protruding shoulder blades gray bat wings flapped like wet clothes on a clothesline. There were about sixty of them by Leo's reckoning, flying towards them in a discordant formation.

"Volatii," Jason said. "Winged demons. I've never seen so many in one place before."

Frank reached them and collapsed on the ground in front of them, changing back to human. He pointed feebly at the direction in which he came with a hand that trembled from exhaustion.

"Horses," he panted. "Suit."

"Poor guy's gone crazy from exhaustion," Leo said, for which Hazel gave him a reproachful look.

Frank looked like he wanted to say something but continued wheezing on his knees. The volatii were now a hundred metres away. One had broken away and was bearing on them with a baring of its sharp teeth in a savage killer shark smile. Jason drew his gladius and stood protectively over Frank, who was far from regaining his breath. He was followed by a cacophony of metal scraping against metal as the rest of the group drew their weapons. Even Nico drew his black bladed sword, to which Hazel scolded him about how he needed to rest.

"I want to fight," Nico protested. "I have to protect everyone."

Wow, Leo thought. Percy much.

"Fine," Hazel said at last. "But don't use your powers. You're not strong enough yet."

Nico nodded and held up his sword. The dark blade cast a shadow over his face as it stood between the sun and Nico's face. Jason looked over his shoulder.

"Circle around Frank," he said. "Lets send these things back to Tartarus."

"Right," Leo remarked as they made a rough circle around Frank, facing outward. "Protect Darth Vader here. No problem."

Frank wheezed something that sounded a lot like a cuss word.

"We might not want to send them to Tartarus," Nico said. "That would mean more trouble for Percy and Annabeth."

Before they could ponder the implications of killing them, the volatii fell upon them. Jason swung his gladius at the leading creature, turning it into yellow dust.

"Pt," Leo heard Hazel spit out some monster dust. "Eww," she added, and swung her spatha at the nearest flying Gollum.

Leo pulled his hammer from the tool belt and swung at a volatius above his head. He missed, and the bony creature dove with its talons aiming for Leo's face. He ducked at the last minute and threw a fireball in its direction. It exploded in a shower of yellow dust. He swung his hammer again and caught another creature square in the face, causing it to disintegrate after screeching in pain. Leo ignited his left hand and shot fireballs at the creatures, most of the time at random. He was playing a game of Roman Space Invaders, except without the three lives. He chanced a glance at his friends while firing a jet of fire in front of him for ten seconds. Jason was hacking and stabbing at the volatii with blinding speed. Storm clouds had built up above his head and forked lightning occasionally cracked through the air, vaporising a couple of winged demons. His other friends fought valiantly. Even Piper stabbed a couple of volatii with Katopris. Nico stood his ground, swinging his sword only when a volatius flew too close. Leo had hoped the son of Hades would impress him with mad fighting skills similar to Percy's, but so far he was disappointed.

Behind them, Frank regained his breathing. He got up, and Leo hoped he would be their reinforcements. A Dragon-Frank would finish off these creatures in no time, Leo thought. Instead, Frank grabbed Hazel's hand and dragged her with him as he ran in the direction in which he came. He turned to look at an astonished Jason.

"Horses," he told Jason while he ducked from snapping talons. "I mean pegasi. Many of them. They're that way." He pointed to where he was running to.

Jason looked up, and Leo followed suit. They had killed many volatii, but there were at least thirty left. Leo was feeling the fatigue from using so much fire. He blasted one more creature out of the sky before he shouted, "Lead the way" at Frank and ran after him and Hazel. Jason, Piper and Nico followed him and soon the group of demigods was running through the field, pursued by murderous winged demons. Leo noticed that they were running a bit to the west of where Frank had come from. They climbed up a small hill where Leo turned at its base and threw up a wall of fire, which burnt and wounded the creatures, but did not destroy them. Leo struggled up the hill, realising that he had used up the last of his energy and was soon going to collapse in exhaustion. Piper grabbed his hand and pulled him up all the way to the top of the hill.

He didn't have time to regain his breathing or for it to catch in his throat as Piper dragged him down the other side of the hill towards the (herd? flock?) of pegasi grazing peaceful in the light of the late afternoon sun. Leo immediately realised that these winged horses were different to those from Camp. For one, instead of having white or flat colours, they were brightly coloured and gaudy hued. Leo saw silver, red, purple, orange, even a green pegasus. These pegasi were also slicker, some glossy and some metallic hued, and more sporty, if horses could be sporty. The group of demigods ran towards the pegasi, with Jason at the rear warding off hungry volatii. As they approached them, the pegasi raised their heads to look at the idiots disturbing their peace.

"Please don't fly away, please don't fly away," Leo found himself muttering. He tugged at Piper.

"Use your charmspeak on them, Beauty Queen," he asked her. "Use it fast. We have to make a quick getaway."

"I can't rush it, Leo," she responded. "Otherwise it won't work."

"Fine, I'll do it," he said, and imagined himself with a feather in his hair, talking to ponies. He shook his head vigorously, clearing his head of the thought.

"Don't be stupid, Valdez," Piper said.

Leo glanced behind him. Jason was waving his gladius in random arcs like he was swatting flies, very big, very ugly flies. The volatii dive-bombed him as if they were angry pigeons and he was a demigod flavoured piece of bread. Nico was running in front of him, looking like he did when he came out of his jar, occasionally turning back and helping Jason. A beating of giant and multiple wings made Leo tear his gaze from the two children of the Big Three and focus ahead of him. Frank and Hazel had stopped and were now covering their heads as the pegasi air-stampeded over their heads, clearly startled. Piper stopped in her tracks, causing Leo to run into her. The pegasi flew over their heads, heading towards Jason and the winged demons. Oh, not good, Leo thought.

"Jason!" he shouted at his best friend. "Duck!"

The blond boy looked up just in time and he threw himself onto the soft grass. The pegasi ignored him and clashed with the flying Gollums. Leo watched in awe as the winged horses trampled the winged demons within a vicious minute. These had to be the most violent horses Leo had ever seen, and he had seen a wild pegasus trample Coach Hedge in the Mediterranean. The pegasi landed on the grass covered in yellow dust and continued to graze as if nothing happened. Leo looked at them open-mouthed.

"Did they just…" he muttered feebly.

He looked towards Frank and Hazel for an answer, but they had their backs towards him. Leo looked past them, wondering what they were staring at, and he saw him. It was an impeccably dressed man in his thirties, and he had a round face with spiky black hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a black suede jacket, a light blue shirt open at the collar and dark blue jeans. Oh, suit, Leo thought. On his feet he had black pointed leather shoes. Leo guessed he was handsome, although his keen eyes betrayed him as being immature, like an overgrown fourteen year old. He looks familiar, Leo thought.

"Ah, demigods," he said with an Italian accent. "I haven't seen your kind since the disappearance of the Twelfth Legion. What brings you to the Ancient Lands."

Before any of them could answer, Hazel blurted out, "I know you. You were the mortal tamer of horses of the Fifth Legion."

Everyone tensed at the word _mortal. _Every mortal who had lived in the old days served Gaea and had tried to kill them. Leo saw Jason and Nico gripping their blades tightly on their hands.

The man chuckled. "You know your Roman history, girl," he said. "I am Horatius Manlius Superbus." I am a descendant of the old kings of Rome, and tamer of horses and stock. I also used to train cavalry, although it wasn't very popular in the Legion."

"So we're making up names now," Leo said, clearly not believing that this guy had such a name. "OK, well my name's Leonus Awesomus Minibus." Jason chuckled.

The man, Horatius, extended his hand to Leo.

"Nice to meet you Leonus," he said. "Although you do not look very Roman."

"I am Latin," Leo said.

"Who is your immortal parent?"

"Heph-" Leo caught himself. "Vulcan. It's Vulcan."

Horatius scratched his chin. "Is it now? I had a few run-ins with him. He-"

Piper seemed to be loosing her patience. "I love the fraternising, but could you tell us what you're doing here." She added layers of her charmspeak that were so strong such that Leo just wanted to curl up in her lap and tell her everything, from the Prophecy of Seven to the Doors of Death, even though she knew it all.

"To tell you that, I have to tell you my history," Horatius began. "You see, I-"

"I do know you!" Leo shouted suddenly. He remembered Horatius' face from his favourite car ad…

"You're Enzo Ferrari!" Leo finished excitedly.

His friends turned to look at him.

"As in the car guy?" Jason blurted. "I thought he was dead."

Horatius, or Enzo (Leo was getting confused), nodded. "Yes, that is what they called me some years ago," he said. "And I had to fake my own death, otherwise the mortals would have gotten suspicious." Before Leo could ask how, Horatuis/Enzo said, "I used a stunt double."

"Wait, then you're not mortal?" Frank asked.

"No, boy," Enzo (Leo decided to call him Enzo, it was way cooler) said. "I was granted immortality by Neptune for taming his wild grandchildren. I have tamed wild pegasi for millenia"

Leo remembered that Neptune, or Poseidon, was not only the lord of horses, but he was also Pegasus' father. That meant Percy was related to pegasi, Leo realised with a start.

"Great then," Jason said. "You don't mind giving us a couple, do you?" Enzo gave him a stern look. "Or we can buy them," Jason continued, fishing out some golden drachmas from his jeans pocket.

"Keep your money," Enzo spat, suddenly angry. "No one rides these pegasi, just as one has riden their immortal father Pegasus. Especially those who are as dishonourable as you. Buying such majestic creatures-bah! Off with you!"

Piper cleared her voice, but was interrupted by the sudden flapping of wings as the pegasi flew off the ground and attacked them.


	3. Chapter 3

III

Leo

In his fifteen years of existence, Leo could safely say that he had never been attacked by flying horses. Sure he had been attacked by strange things; vicious fan-nymphs, six armed clay monsters and spirit possessed armoured manikins (he had even had a small spat with a pegasus back at camp, but that one was frightened by his fire-making abilities) , but he never thought he would go one-on-one with My Little Pony. More like ten-on-one, he thought as a flame red pegasus flapped its wings in Leo's direction, causing great gusts of wind to knock him slightly off balance. He pondered the horrible twist of fate that made the piñata beat the, well, beater as he threw his hands over his head, expecting the worst.

The pegasus inched closer, but did not brand Leo with hoof prints. Leo realised, with a start, that it wasn't trying to kill him, but was driving him away. He was sure that if Percy were here, he would tell him that it was saying _shoo_. The pegasi were slowly driving them towards the east, with Enzo shouting, "Be gone with you. You will not get any of my pegasi."

"Can't we at least borrow them?" Jason seemed to be saying from Leo's right. He was waving his gladius around, trying to frighten the winged horses. "We'll bring them back."

"Absolutely not. They are not going anywhere." Enzo looked at Nico, who was still trying to regain his breath after his run up and down the hill. Strangely enough, the pegasi did not attack him or try drive him away. In fact, they stayed as far away from him as they possibly could. When it comes to horses, Nico is the anti-Percy, Leo thought. But then again, Nico is the anti-everything.

The pegasi seemed to pester Jason the most since he was the only one, besides Nico, who had not moved away. A thunderstorm brewed above their heads as Jason tried to scare them away using lightning. Wind buffeted against Leo and the gang (Leo liked the sound of that) as the storm brewed overhead, the clouds looking like root beer foam, except darker. Piper tried to resolve the matter with diplomacy.

"Enzo," she shouted over the gushing wind and the terrified neighing and wing flapping of the pegasi. "Tell your horses… calm your… JASON!" she screamed suddenly, looking super irritated. "WOULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN! I'M TRYING TO TALK!"

"Oh," Jason managed. "Sorry."

The wind died down and the clouds cleared above them. Leo smiled inwardly. This was the first time he had seen Piper getting upset at Jason. And about time too, he thought. Their relationship had been too perfect for his liking. If I had seen any more lovey-dovey-ness from those two, I was going to puke, he thought.

"Now, she started, steadying her voice. "Mr Ferrari. Could you please lend us your pegasi. We'll return them… when we can."

Enzo stared into Piper's eyes and slowly nodded.

"Alright," he said. "Since you asked so nicely."

He blew a shrill whistle, and the agitated pegasi settled on the ground and began to graze away again as if nothing happened. This guy's really good, Leo thought. He could show the guys from Cirque du Soleil a couple moves. Enzo gestured towards the winged horses with an open hand.

"Pick whichever you want," he said, his eyes still fixed on Piper.

Piper looked around (which made Enzo blink very quickly and look away as well) and fixed her eyes on a silver pegasus on her left.

"Dibs on the silver one!" she said quickly.

"Dibs on the orange one!" Jason said immediately after her. Hazel called dibs on a purple one after much hesitation. Leo guessed that she wanted to ride only Arion, but Leo doubted whether the horse had crossed the Atlantic after them. Nico called silent dibs on a glossy black pegasus by pointing a trembling hand at it, but Hazel shook her head.

"Nico, you'll ride with me. You're too weak to ride on your own."

Nico looked too frail to argue so he nodded feebly. Everyone turned to look at Leo.

"What?" he asked them with his hands slightly raised. "There's no way I'm riding any of these things. Until now they wanted to kill me." He pointed a finger at Frank. "I call dibs on Frank!"

Frank shook his head. "I'm not changing into anything very soon; I'm exhausted."

"On second thought," Leo said. "I'd rather not." He had just remembered the incident at Fort Sumter when Frank had dropped him. He did not want to go through that again.

I'll take the green one," Frank said.

"Fine," Leo said. "I'll take that one over there." He motioned at the red pegasus that had attacked him. "Come on guys," he said to his friends. "Let's go. We don't want to kick the gift horse in the teeth, so to speak."

The gang all walked to their respective pegasi. The winged horses became agitated as they approached, reminding Leo that they were still wild. Enzo started talking to them in Italian -no, Latin- and the pegasi calmed down and in no time acted like the pegasi from Camp Half-Blood.

"I hope you're taking notes, Jason," Piper said. "For the next time we want to tame wild horses."

Jason nodded. It looked like he still wasn't over the roasting Piper had given him. Tough luck, buddy, Leo thought. You've probably never had a girl talk to you like that. Now you know how the rest of us feel.

Enzo said something to the horses again in Latin. He turned to us.

"Ok, now mount your steeds and choose a word or phrase that will be a command to get your steed moving."

"You mean like 'go Dasher go Blitzen'?" Leo asked, and Enzo nodded.

They all mounted their steeds and sat there, thinking of command phrases.

"That's easy," Leo said, and sat up on his pegasus. "Open gangnam style!"

He crossed his arms and felt the pegasus gallop and, a few moments later, take flight. He was forced to grip its mane as it soared higher and higher. How do you turn this thing, he thought frantically as his friends below him became smaller. He pulled at the mane (not too hard, don't worry) and the winged horse climbed upwards in a steep ascent. At this rate he would become modern day Icarus. Luckily for him, the sun was currently setting in the horizon. He pushed downwards and the pegasus stopped in mid-air, allowing gravity to take hold and dove towards the spinning earth. He pulled and the pegasus levelled before they became demigod and pegasus pancakes with lots and lots of strawberry jelly. This mane is like a joystick, he thought. Awesome! Leo whooped in delight as he brought his pegasus in for a landing in front of his awestruck friends.

"Leo, since when do you know winged horseriding?" Hazel asked him.

"Since about two minutes ago," he replied. "I figured riding a wild pegasus was the same as flying a helicopter." Jason and Piper smiled as they remembered their first quest together; when Leo had flown a helicopter for the first time in his life in order to fly them to the Wolf House. "Besides, Pyro here did all the work."

"Pyro?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, that's what I've decided to call him. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Isn't Pyro that bad guy in X-Men?" Jason asked.

Leo was silent for a second. He hadn't thought of that. He regained his composure.

"I know. I figured since he's red and his master's a total bad boy, his name should be Pyro. By the way, what did you guys name your pegasi?"

"I've named mine Chlorofyll," Frank said. "You know, 'cause she's green."

Hazel laughed. "Oh Frank, you really suck at picking names, don't you. How about you call her Bessie."

"That's a cow's name," Frank argued.

Jason interrupted them. "Look, it doesn't matter." He pointed at the horizon. "The sun is setting. We need to find a place to spend the night, 'cause I'm sure as Pluto not sleeping in the middle of this field."

The gang grumbled and muttered, but they knew that he had made a good suggestion. They mounted their respective pegasi and Leo followed suit. It was for Leo strange to see Frank on a horse. He would most likely picture him as the horse. This is what being friends with super-powered demigods does to a person, Leo thought. Back when he was normal, he would have had himself tested for insanity for thinking about such crazy things.

The pegasi fidgeted, looking ready to roam the skies. Leo, however, had one more nagging question for the horse tamer.

"Hey, do you have your own personal Ferrari, Mr Ferrari?"

Enzo turned to him. "As a matter of fact, I do." He let out a whistle and within several seconds a new winged horse had joined the herd/flock. This pegasus looked like Version 2.0 of the other pegasi. It was yellow with cream eyes that looked like headlights. Its build was the same, slick and sporty, but it was sportier, leaner and more muscular, but not too much as to appear bulky. It stretched out its wings and Leo noticed that it had a longer wingspan, and its mane flowed behind it in cascading locks. The pegasus trotted over to Enzo and he gave it an affectionate pat on its neck.

"This, Leonus Awesomus, is my Ferrari. She inspired all Ferrari designs, you know."

"That's so cool," Leo said. "I've met the original Ferrari." The world of gods and monsters might contain many unpleasant things, but it could be awesome at times.

"Well then," Piper said. "We better get going. It was nice meeting you Mr Ferrari. Thanks for the horses."

"My pleasure, my dear," he replied, smiling. "It's always nice to meet someone nice and has honour." He turned at glared at Jason.

With multiple loud beating of wings, the demigods took off and headed east, the last rays of the setting sun warming their backs. He wondered what mortals would be seeing when they looked up at them because of the mist. Probably a flock of migrating geese, Leo thought. In that case, we should fly in a V-shaped formation, just so we don't make the mortals suspicious. As they flew on, Leo looked to his right, where Piper was trying to keep her pegasus straight. It amazed Leo just how powerful she had become. He had Enzo practically eating from the palm of her hand, probably the same way Enzo feeds his pegasi sugar cubes. She added to Leo's confusion as he tried to classify the Seven in the order of who's the most powerful. Leo had initially thought Percy and Jason were the most powerful. Now, he wasn't so sure. In a fight, Piper would in a few words cause them to kill themselves or admit defeat. Leo thought of Frank and Hazel. They were pretty powerful as well. They would probably give Percy and Jason a run for their money, what with Frank's ability to turn into anything and Hazel's father being one of the Big Three. That's why we are the supposed greatest heroes of the age, he thought. Leo felt proud to be part of this team.

It was getting dark, so they landed in a forest at the banks of a stream and set up camp. They got some food that Frank had salvaged at the last minute from the Argo II, and had kept in his backpack, and ate it. Hazel had given Nico squares of Ambrosia and he was chewing on them cautiously, with a bit of colour returning to his cheeks. Leo prepared a small fire and they all sat around it and held a War Council. Leo looked around at his friends, their grim expressions harshly illuminated by the orange flames. Jason was the first to speak.

"Alright guys, we have to figure out what to do next. Any suggestions?"

"Yeah, I've got one," Leo said. "Why don't we go back and fix my ship."

Jason had a sad expression. "Leo, we can't. Fixing the Argo would take too long, it's too damaged. We don't even have material to rebuild, plus we don't know where to find it in the Ancient Lands." He inhaled. "Epirus is our main priority. We have to close the Doors of Death and rescue Percy and Anabeth."

Leo thought for a moment, and got an idea. "Then let's split up. I'll stay behind and fix the ship-"

"We might need your help. Besides, we need to stick together. We have no idea what awaits us in this land."

"They don't call them the Forbidden Lands for nothing," Frank said with a grim expression.

"How will we get to Epirus then?" Leo asked.

"We'll use the pegasi," Jason answered, but even he looked unsure. "Look, we have to try something. We can't leave Percy and Annabeth in that place for longer than we should. They'll hardy survive as it is."

There was silence as the demigods stared into the fire, contemplating Jason's works. They agreed with him, well, Leo knew he did. Their quest was more important, but Leo just couldn't stand leaving his ship behind. It had been a source of comfort and security. Without it, it finally dawned to Leo that they were alone, treading on their enemy's territory, without the wisdom and expertise of Percy and Annabeth. Besides, he didn't even say good-bye to Festus.

Hazel broke the silence. "So what do we do now?"

Piper went to her belt and drew her knife. "Let me look into Katopris. Maybe it will show me how Percy and Annabeth are doing."

Curiosity got the better of Leo and he stuck his head over Piper's shoulder like a long-necked cat. He had to lean on her shoulder to keep balance, much to Piper's annoyance. He looked at the surface of the knife's blade which was reflecting the fire's light and was glowing. Then, suddenly, the blade changed. It became transparent, but instead of Leo seeing the soft earth below it, he saw images. Now just images, moving images, motion picture.

"Hey guys!" he shouted excitedly. "I can see into Piper's knife! Come look!"

There was a split second of hesitation since everyone was surprised. Even Piper gasped in front of him. Then everyone scrambled to their feet and gathered around Piper.

"How is this happening?" Frank asked.

"I don't know," Piper responded. "I thought I was the only one who could see into the knife."

"Wait, I can't see anything," Hazel said sadly.

Leo let go of Piper's shoulder as he stood up to look at Katopris from Hazel's angle. He stopped himself in a half crouch. The images had disappeared. Realisation suddenly dawned on Leo.

"I get it. We have to be in physical contact with Piper in order to see into the knife."

With that said, everyone grabbed at Piper's arms and back, with Leo back at his spot on her shoulder. They all peered into the smooth blade…

…and saw the Argo II from the outside. It looked as wrecked and damaged as they had left it, with Coach Hedge nowhere to be seen. From the north, they saw a small group of monsters converging on the ship. Leo almost stood up.

"You see, we shouldn't have left her," he said, almost yelling. "Now Gaea will have the statue."

"We should go back," Frank suggested.

Jason looked pale. "It's too far. We'll never make back in time."

Leo observed Jason, and saw the hopelessness in his eyes. For the first time since Leo has first met him, Jason didn't know what to do. They watched in shocked silence as the monsters reached the ship. A Hyperborean Cyclops scoured the ship and came out dragging Coach Hedge who was trying to fight back with all he had. Leo had to give credit to the satyr. He was seriously giving the Cyclops a hard time. Two large grey dragons pulled at the Athena Parthenos and with observed difficulty they got it off the Argo. They were about to fly away with it when the Cyclops holding Coach Hedge turned its head towards the south. Before Leo could make out what it was, Jason shouted, "Chiron's retrieval team!" And sure enough, about a dozen centaurs wearing different coloured T-shirts with the words _Party Ponies_ on their chests galloped towards the ship at full speed. Behind them were the strangest creatures Leo had ever seen.

They roughly resembled dugongs, sea cows, but were more cow than sea. They had the same sleek appearance as other underwater mammals, but these creatures had legs and no tails. They even had cow horns growing from their skulls. Three of the centaurs carried the strangest kids Leo had ever seen. There were three of them, two guys and a girl. They looked about fifteen, roughly the same age Leo was. The first kid was a guy with black hair that lay matted against his skull as if he had just come out of a swimming pool. He had sea-blue eyes, a shade of blue that Leo had never seen. He was handsome, but he looked uncomfortable, like he was scared the air would turn into acid and burn him. He had a broadsword and a trident crossed on his back, and was wearing a simple green T-shirt and black jeans.

The other two kids looked even stranger. The guy was, for one, green. Like literally green. He had green coloured skin which colour coordinated with his green T-shirt. His hair was brown and his eyes dark. He was wearing blue jeans and his feet were bare. He had a trident strapped across his back.

"Poor guy," Leo said. "People must accuse him of being envious quite a lot."

Leo was met with _shush Leo_ from his friends.

The girl had magenta skin, long reddish-brown hair and dark eyes. She was pretty, Leo saw, and was wearing a green T-shirt as well, and dark blue jeans. She was also barefoot. All three kids looked conspicuous, like they didn't belong on land. Like fish out of water, Leo thought and suddenly he knew who these kids were.

"They must be mer-heroes," Leo said excitedly.

"Oh yeah," Hazel agreed. I remember them. The black haired guy's name is Bill."

"As in THE Bill?" Leo asked, astounded.

"Who's Bill?" Jason asked.

"He's like the greatest mer-hero," Leo said. "He's the underwater version of you and Percy. Aphros and Bythos, the fish centaurs, told me about him."

"That's cool," Frank said. "But can these fish guys handle these monsters?"

"Bythos held them in high regard," Hazel replied. "Lets see what they can do."

(**A/N: Ok guys in this chapter I included Bill, Cyrus and Ariel, the heroes of the underwater hero training camp, or as Leo calls it, Camp Fish-Blood. Bill and Cyrus are mentioned by the fish centaurs in MoA, but Ariel is OC since all the heroes mentioned were male and I wanted to balance it out. I called her Ariel because I thought It'd be funny to have a mermaid called Ariel. I felt like the only reason they were in MoA was for Riordan to tie up the Phorcys loose end, and I think the mer-heroes are quite cool to be just mentioned in passing so here they are. I'll be doing a story on them called Heroes of Camp Fish-Blood in Bill's POV so watch the space Oh ya, Bill is not a son of Poseidon by the way**.)


	4. Chapter 4

IV

Hazel

Hazel felt grateful she had fallen into the Atlantic that week. If she hadn't, the Athena Parthenos would have been lost to Gaea, the Roman and Greek demigods would have destroyed each other, the gods would have been too schizophrenic to fight the Giants and Gaea would have woken up a month too early. Hazel knew that if she hadn't been there with Frank and Leo, those two would have made a mess of things. Now Hazel watched as the mer-heroes Bill, Cyrus and Ariel prepared to fight the party of monsters (what was the collective of monsters, Hazel asked herself. A gaggle? A pack?) and try to win back the ship and the statue.

She had met the underwater heroes when she had been taken for questioning by Aphros the ichthyocentaur. Since Aphros trained mer-heroes in the art of combat, Hazel had guessed the three mer-teens were his star pupils. He even consulted them in the decision of what to do with her and her friends. Once Hazel had explained who she was and her quest, they told her their names and the narrated the adventures they have had. They revealed to Hazel how they had found and returned Poseidon's trident and how Bill had defeated the Titan Proteus last summer and became Saviour of Atlantis. The more she found out about their quests, the more she realised how much Bill shared the same attributes as Percy and Jason. He even looked the part, with jet black hair which floated around his head, the good looks of a Roman god and the sea-blue eyes that looked black in the shadows.

She also realised that, unlike his friends, Bill had legs and not fish tails. When she asked him about it, he had told her, "I used to live on the surface once. I was even a Roman camper, but I left that life behind and now I live here. This is my home, and these people are my family. They welcomed me, even though I was a total stranger and now I can't even survive on the surface. Besides, you don't have to have a fish tail to be a mer-hero. Triton, our senior counsellor, the greatest mer-hero who ever swam the ocean, has two fish trunks for legs."

Hazel thought about that as she watched the mer-heroes approach the Argo II from Piper's knife. They all had legs now, but she knew Cyrus and Ariel's feet were magical and Bill's were his own. She watched them approach the ship and saw Bill shouting what is presumably orders to his friends (The knife didn't have sound.

"Piper," Leo said. "Your knife should at least have subtitles."

Piper gave Leo an angry look over her shoulder, but Hazel knew she was hoping he was right.

When the retrieval team was about ten metres from the monsters, Bill leaped off the centaur he was on and went straight into the middle of the horde. He landed, drew both his broadsword and his trident, and proceeded to hack at every monster closest to him. The trident was gray, long, narrow and had sharp outer edges so it could be used to slash instead of just stabbing. The broadsword had a celestial bronze blade and a black hilt. Bill twirled and danced around with each weapon in each hand. A Cyclops ran towards him but fell as Cyrus, who had decided to join the fun, leapt at it and stabbed it in the heart with his trident. The creature crumbled into fine gray dust. The two boys continued their massacre of the monsters while covering each other's back.

A Lastrigornian giant pummeled Bill to the ground, scattering his weapons from his hands. Bill retaliated by firing a torrent of blue electricity from his hands, vaporising the shocked cannibal.

"Whoa, that's awesome," Frank said. "How did he do that?"

"It must be mer-powers," Leo said. "All I know is, I'm never making fun of Little Mermaid again."

Good timing, Hazel thought. I was about to tell him Ariel's name.

At that moment, a volatius dove in on Bill with its talons outstretched, aiming for his face. It was hit by an arrow in the chest, an arrow, Hazel realised, that was fired by Ariel from the back of a centaur. The mermaid nocked another arrow and aimed at one of the dragons that were flying away with the statue.

"Wait, she has a bow?" Leo asked. "Is there an underwater group called the Fishers of Artemis or something?"

Jason chuckled. "With your luck, Leo, they've probably sworn off boys."

Hazel saw Cyrus shouting something at Bill and gesturing towards the dragons that were flying away, quite slowly because of the weight of the statue. After picking up his weapons, Bill raced after them, leaving Cyrus to deal with the remaining monsters. Ariel leaped off her centaur and ran to join Bill. She shot an arrow to the leading dragon's eye, causing it to drop the statue and shriek in pain. The Parthenos fell on the ground with a loud thud, but luckily it didn't break. Bill jumped, impossible high, onto the leading dragon's neck. He twirled his sword around and cut through the dragon's left wing, causing it to fall with him to the ground. He leapt off at the last minute and rolled on he soft grass. He got up, and before the dragon could swipe at him with its front claws, he stabbed its neck with the sword and dragged it up to the base of the dragon's neck, where he stabbed the it underneath its jaw with the trident. The dragon disintegrated into gray dust with a shiny scale on top, a spoil of war. Frank clutched at his own neck.

"Yo, Frank," Leo said. Be glad you didn't meet this guy. He doesn't seem to like dragons very much."

Bill then turned to the other dragon on which Ariel had now planted six arrows, three on its head and the other three on its underbelly. He shot a bolt of electricity at the protruding arrows and the dragon shrieked, blue electricity flashing in its belly. From her knowledge of metals, Hazel knew that the electricity had conducted into the creature through the metal points of the arrows. As the dragon fell to the ground, Ariel flashed Bill a beaming smile…

…and the image changed to a hill with a single pine tree which had what looks like thick cables on its branches and a sheet of gold hanging on the lowest branch. Hazel felt Piper tense underneath her hand, and Hazel realised that he had seen this image before, back on the Argo.

"It's Camp," Nico said. Hazel looked at her baby brother. He seemed to have recovered a great deal since they first saw him in the underground parking lot in Rome. Soon he would be back to full health and, Hazel knew, saving Percy and Annabeth would be easier. She thought of what he had just said, and remembered the picture on the Argo. It was Camp Half-Blood. In front of the hill, a group of Roman demigods led by Octavian stood. Overhead, giant eagles circled, each carrying a Roman. Hazel felt her stomach drop. The Romans had reached Camp Half-Blood.

Next to her, her friends felt similar dread. The statue was still in Italy. Sure it had been saved from Gaea's hands, but the new Civil War would still continue. Octavian took great care to circle around the pine tree the long way, avoiding what Hazel thought was cables was actually a dragon of some sort. Octavian and his group of Romans now stood in front of a haze in the air, looking down at a miniature Greek city. Most of the inhabitants of the city were aware of their presense and they had stopped their everyday deeds and looked up at the looming danger. Octavian shouted something and the Romans cheered, bringing up their shields and ran forward. They all hit the haze and rebounded, most of them landing on their bottoms.

Octavian scrambled to his feet and turned to the Romans. He started talking passionately and waved his arms around. Hazel realised that we was delivering a speech. No matter how much Hazel hated Octavian, she had to admire the Augur's public speaking abilities. The Romans cheered and Hazel saw some kids from the Third Cohort, Vulcan kids, taking out various tools from their packs and trying them on the magical shield. One of them removed, impossibly, a full-sized battering ram from his backpack and, with the help of the other Legionnaires pushed it to the magical boundary.

"Oh no," Leo said. "This is not good. The ram is made from tourmaline." Everyone looked at him quizzically. "It's a natural Polaroid. It restricts electric fields from oscillating in a certain direction, so the intensity of EM waves is reduced, most of the time by half. If two tourmaline materials are used, the intensity could be reduced to zero, meaning no more waves."

"Leo," Jason said. "We get it. You're a geek, but what does what you said have to do with anything?"

Leo tried to contain his horror. "Don't you get it, I've always had a theory that magical ray-shields are made from EM waves. The point is, that ram knocks down EM waves. What do you think will happen to the Camp's magical shield?"

Jason sounded almost angry. "There's no way Thalia's pine tree magic can be overcome…by science."

The group watched, however, as the ram knocked down the Camp's magical boundaries after several tries. The Romans spilled into Greek territory, weapons at the ready. The Greeks, however, were prepared. A group of tough looking Greeks that could have made up an entire Cohort ran up the hill to meet the Romans.

"The Ares Cabin," Leo said. "I've never been so glad to see Clarisse in my life."

Frank looked at the children of the War god. Hazel remembered that these kids were his siblings. She remembered meeting Frank's grandmother in Canada. It was always nice to meet her boyfriend's family.

It was like a scene from old war movies. The Romans and Greeks clashed in a flurry of swords, spears and shields. Celestial bronze swords were met with rectangular golden shields, and Imperial gold gladii were met with round bronze shields. Dust rose up as the First Battle of Half-Blood Hill continued. The Greeks were at a disadvantage since they were fighting uphill, but they were greater in number and so they pushed the Romans further uphill. Overhead, giant eagles clashed with pegasi as Greeks and Romans engaged in aerial combat. Hazel saw that Octavian had managed to get to the back of the Romans. Coward, Hazel thought. A burly Greek girl carrying a spear tore through Roman ranks with savage passion. In several minutes the Romans were overpowered. Hazel saw Octavian shout something and the Romans formed a testudo, the Roman turtle shell, and retreated slowly as they took vicious knocks to their shields. The burly girl commanded the Greeks to stop advancing at the Camp's boundaries. The Romans conceded defeat and the Greeks celebrated their victory. Overhead, however, the Romans had won but they still retreated after Octavian and his troops, heading towards the base of the hill where the Romans had set up base.

"This is not over," Nico said, surprising everyone. "The Romans will return. This is only a fraction of their army."

Frank nodded. "They will not rest until Camp Half-Blood has been burnt to the ground."

Hazel had to remind herself that, besides being able to turn into animals, Frank was also a Roman Centurion and an excellent military strategist.

After the battle, the Greeks headed down their own side of the hill…

…and the image changed to a dark space. An enormous spider with a woman's head stood, with mandibles bared, in front of a teenage black haired boy with his back on them, armed with a celestial bronze sword that illuminated the darkness.

"PERCY!" Hazel shouted.

Behind Percy stood Annabeth. Her left leg was slightly raised, and in the light of Percy's sword, Hazel could see that her ankle brace was still there. She was bruised on her left arm and she looked exhausted. Percy was having a conversation with the spider while he stood protectively over Annabeth. All of a sudden, Percy pushed Annabeth out of the way as Spiderwoman attacked. The spider pounced on him and he ducked and slashed at her front leg, severing it. He then slid under the spider and her face twisted in agony as he opened a gash underneath her abdomen. He jumped on her abdomen and ran up the length of her body until he was at her head, where plunged the full length of Riptide into her skull. His actions were met with cheers from the group, and Hazel felt a bit of hope rising within her. Percy and Annabeth were definitely alive. Percy had just defeated the menace to Athena's children. Hazel allowed a smile to creep up her face, which disappeared as quickly as it came. To her horror, the spider started moving again. It tossed Percy of with a shake of its head and the fight commenced once more, except this time Percy was at a serious disadvantage. The image disappeared and the knife returned to its normal bronze hue.

"Why isn't it dying," Piper asked, horrified.

It was Nico who answered her. "Creatures from Tartarus, once they are in Tartarus they don't die."

The fire crackled as stunned silence echoed in the clearing where they had settled. Hazel felt as if she was dying again.

"Then that means all those monsters…" her voice broke. During her quest with Percy and Frank, they had killed many monsters. If all of them were down there and weren't dying…

"Yes, every monster we have faced and ever will face is down there," Nico said. "It's too much to handle, for anyone. I didn't survive five days before I was captured. Lucky for me I got to be used as bait, otherwise I would be dead."

"That's good news then," Piper said with a voice that was devoid of its usual confidence and charm. "Gaea told us she wants Percy and Annabeth to be the sacrifice to wake her up. That means they'll survive."

"Even if Gaea decides to use any of us," Hazel said. "They will be alright. I know Percy. When Death was chained in Alaska, he managed to defeat two gorgons that didn't die. He'll get them out of there."

The looks they gave her showed her that they wanted to believe her.

Nico spoke again, his pre-pubescent voice a strange carrier of such grave matters. "They may be able to survive, but they still need to escape from Tartarus once they have defeated Gaea's forces."

"How can they defeat something that can't be defeated?" Leo asked doubtfully.

"Everything can be defeated," Nico answered. "Even the gods can be destroyed, if you know how to do it." There was no rumble of thunder. The gods probably don't hear this far, Hazel thought. Or maybe there've got more important things to worry about.

"The Giants know how to do that already," Jason muttered. "Wait, Nico," he said with a louder voice. "You mentioned escape. But won't that be easy? Don't they just need to walk through the Doors of Death?"

"Not necessarily," Nico said. Now everyone's attention was on him. "When I was captured in Tartarus, they brought me through the Doors. But with Annabeth and Percy it's different. They need to close the Doors first, but then how will they get through once the Doors are closed?"

"Can't they, like, close the Doors but go through while they are still closing so they close behind them?" Leo asked.

Nico chuckled. "No, it doesn't work like that. The Doors have to close with them still on the other side."

Leo sighed. "Can't the Doors of Death be revolving doors, or elevator doors, or those doors in restaurants that swing inward and outward?"

"That would totally make our jobs easier," Piper agreed.

"So that's it?" Jason asked. "There's no way for Percy and Annabeth to return to the mortal world?"

Nico breathed in deeply and then breathed out. "There is a way. But to fully explain it, I have to first tell you about my quest with Percy and Thalia to find my father's sword.

"Wait, You, Percy and Thalia went on a quest together?" Frank asked. "As in the children of all the Big Three?"

"Yes," Nico replied. "But it was more for diplomacy. It was during the Titan War. My stepmother Persephone sent the three of us on a quest to find the Sword of Hades, hoping that by the three of us finding it we would convince the other gods to let Hades keep his sword and therefore win the war."

Hazel's eyes widened. There was so much about her brother that she didn't know. Besides that he was half-Italian and had a sister called Bianca, she didn't know anything else about him.

"But that's not the point," Nico continued. "The Sword of Hades was made by creatures called Wraiths. Creatures which Hades destroyed and had their bones hidden where no one can find them, after discovering that Persephone had gone behind his back and made the sword. These creatures hold extraordinary power."

Jason nodded. "Creatures that make godly weapons are very powerful. Most of them are immortal."

"All of them, except for the Wraiths. They are undead, but hold the same power as creatures such as Elder Cyclopes. That's why they are the only thing that can bring Percy and Annabeth back to the mortal world.

"What about the Labyrinth? It has entrances to Tartarus, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but it would take a long time for them to find these entrances. It would take them months, possibly years, to get back. My solution will get them back by the end of the week."

"So, how would we use these creatures to save them?" Frank asked.

"We would only need one of their bones. Preferably a major one like a rib or a leg bone. With a Wraith's bone, a shadow traveller is able to travel to and fro from Tartarus at will."

"A shadow traveller?" Leo asked. "What's that?"

"That's something that can travel through space by manipulating shadows, that can teleport, so to speak. Creatures from Hades such as undead warriors and hellhounds are shadow travellers. I am one as well."

Hazel almost choked on her own inhaled air. "You can teleport?" she asked him stupidly. He nodded.

"That's so cool," Leo said. "So, Nico, I'm in the mood for takeout. Can you pop by China and get me some?"

"I don't do it too often," Nico said, looking at Leo. "Shadow travel requires a lot of energy. Going to New York would exhaust me greatly."

"Relax man," Leo laughed. "I'm just messing with you."

"Oh, Ok. Anyway, if I had the bone of a Wraith I could shadow travel to Tartarus and get Percy and Annabeth."

"Wouldn't you get tired?" Frank asked.

"Yes I would. In fact, I'll probably have to take a nap."

Hazel still couldn't wrap her head around what she had just heard. It was amazing how little she knew her brother. She had always known him as the Ambassador to Pluto at Camp Jupiter. Now she finds out he has been on quests for Camp Half-Blood, and he is a shadow traveller. The latter made her quite jealous. They had the same father, but all she could do was detect and control metals and precious stones, and dig tunnels. He on the other hand could summon skeletons, invoke fear, will living things to die and control ghosts. And now she finds out that he can teleport. This awakened a part of Hazel that wished that Hades instead of Pluto was her father.

She still needed clarification, so she turned to Nico. "I thought you said all the Wraith bones were hidden by Hades? How will we find them, or have you found them already?"

"That, sis, is the interesting part," Nico said mysteriously.


	5. Chapter 5

V

Hazel

Hazel knew her brother was good at many things, but she didn't know suspense was one of them. She eyed him gingerly as she waited for him to explain himself. His face was illuminated by the fire, yet there were shadows over his eyes and forehead so he looked like a ghost storyteller.

"The last time I saw you at Camp Jupiter, I went looking for the Doors. Once I found out they were in Tartarus, I looked for a way to return from there without using the Doors. I searched all of Hades until I found out about the Wraiths. I looked for them everywhere, and my search eventually led me to Tartarus where I was… captured." Hazel sensed the hesitation. "I should have taken the long way," he continued.

"What do you mean, the long way," Jason asked.

"I opted for the short-cut, down Tartarus through the Doors to Greece. I could have taken the long way, the one you guys took, across the Atlantic and past Rome."

"Wait, so you're telling us that there is a Wraith in Greece?" Frank asked.

Nico nodded. "In the capital. There's a Wraith that hasn't worked for my father for two thousand years, a Wraith that escaped his massacre; the grave digger of Athens."

He looked at each of them, especially Leo and Piper, expecting them to know who this grave digger was. Leo finally broke the silence.

"What's so special about a guy who digs graves?" he asked. "It's like saying, 'lets go find the Janitor of Doom.'"

"This guy knew the secrets of the Olympians," Nico continued. "He also found a way to cheat death and lived for hundreds of years."

"How did he do that, beat Thanatos in a game of cards?" Leo asked jokingly. Hazel sighed. Trust Leo to make a joke about the safety of their friends and future of the world.

"No one knows, but it was pretty impressive considering he was a mortal. He had to repay his debt for cheating death for so long by being one of Father's Wraiths. Anyway, his grave is in Athens so we can take one of his bones and save our friends."

"Wait, you mean we have to rob his grave?" Piper asked. "Since when did we become demigod Lara Crofts?"

"In a sense, yes," Nico answered. "It's a good thing Epirus is in the north-western region of Greece. We can head for Athens then head north to Epirus."

"Ok then," Jason said. "Looks like we wont be taking the shortcut to Epirus. But at least now we can see the road." He straightened up dramatically. "Grave digger's grave, here we come!"

After the meeting, the group tried to have a bit of fun. They talked and joked about the recent turn of events. The conversation headed towards the mer-heroes. Jason and Leo were praising the aquatic heroes while Frank and Piper were on the opposing side.

"Come on, Frank," Leo was saying. "Those guys are awesome. Did you see that Bill kid? Man! Looks like you've got competition, Jason."

"All I'm saying is, it's special effects. We could take on those monsters with half the effort. They just had to show off."

Hazel watched them with mild interest. She wanted to join in, but she had to sort her thoughts out first. This business with the grave digger got her thinking. She wanted to be part of the quest to rob his grave. She felt like it was her responsibility as well, not just Nico's, to get Percy and Annabeth out of Tartarus. As a child of the Underworld, she should have all the answers about these things like Nico does. Besides, she wasn't fooled by Nico's calm composure as he told them about his adventures. She could feel the pain, the horror, even the fear, in his voice. His quests may sound cool when he tells them, but Hazel wished she would never experience them.

Her friends started playing a game of charades. They quickly stopped when they discovered that Frank was exceptionally good at it, while Leo was absolutely terrible. The game ended after it was Frank's turn to make them guess the name of a movie. He started by pointing his finger at his hair.

"Hair! Hare! Head? You're crazy? Crazy! Crazy Stupid Love!" Leo tried to guess.

Frank shook his head frantically, then he had one of his lightbulb ideas. He closed his eyes…

"Closing eyes! Eyes! The Hills have Eyes!" Leo tried again.

…and hair started to grow on his arms and legs until he looked like a teenage Wolfman.

"Wolfman!" Leo shouted.

"You're hairy?" Piper tried. "Hairy! Harry Potter!" Frank pointed a finger at her and used his other hand to encourage her to continue. "Harry Potter and…come on Frank, there's eight of them." Frank made a drinking motion.

"Water!" Leo guessed. "Harry Potter and the Sea of Monsters!" Frank pointed at the fire.

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!" Piper shouted and Frank agreed.

"Come on," Leo complained. "That didn't look anything like Harry Potter. That's it, I'm out of here." He stood up and headed away from their camp."

"Leo, where are you going," Hazel asked.

"To look for wood," he shouted a distance away.

Jason also stood up and turned to Nico. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute."

Nico nodded and the son of Hades was led by the son of Jupiter away to the edge of the clearing. Hazel stood up as well.

"I'm going to go check on the pegasi," she told Frank and Piper.

"Oh," Frank said. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"It's fine. I'll only be a minute."

She walked away from the fire and headed towards the winged horses. They were on their bellies, chewing intently on something she couldn't see. She walked over to her purpled hued pegasus and stroked its neck. She had named it Violet, which was a stupid name, she thought, but would have to do. She patted the winged horse slightly, wanting to make it get up.

"Come on girl," she said. "Get up. Hazel rocks." That was her command phrase.

The pegasus got steadily on its feet. It fidgeted slightly on its feet, waiting for Hazel to mount. Hazel was slightly relieved. She had thought it would fly off when she said the catch phrase. She leaped off the ground and onto its back, resaid her command phrase and in moments they were galloping through the Italian forest. Violet had her wings slightly spread so it looked like she was about to fly, but continued to gallop on the soft forest floor. Wind whipped Hazel's hair behind her and she felt like whooping in joy. She loved riding. She never had enough of it back when she lived in New Orleans, except for the time Sammy took her to those stables. Then she had found Arion, the magnificent tan horse that was faster than a speeding bullet. Violet was much slower, and Hazel could see that she wasn't used to running on land. She could never compare to Arion, but she was good enough.

Hazel stopped in the middle of a small clearing. She had lost track of time. More importantly, she was hopelessly lost. She looked around, panic beginning fill up her chest. She wanted to shout, but she didn't want to attract the attention of monsters that were lurking in the shadows. Fortunately, the moon illuminated the dark forest so she could see about ten yards in front of her. She heard the movement behind her and almost broke her neck trying to see what it was. It was only Leo.

"Leo, you almost gave me a heart attack!" she said angrily. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm looking for firewood, what are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm taking Violet for a run. She looked like she needed it."

"Sure she did."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Never mind." Leo bent down to pick up a piece of wood, adding to the large pile he had across his chest. "I guess I should be heading back," he said, and started walking away.

"Leo, wait…"

Leo turned around, a grin plastered over his face.

"You're lost, aren't you?" he asked.

"Kinda," was Hazel's response.

He chucked. "Tonight's your unlucky night then," he said. "Because I'm lost too."

"Are you serious?" she asked doubtingly.

"Am I ever not serious?" he responded. "Don't answer that," he added as an afterthought.

Hazel hopped off her pegasus. "Let's just find a way back to camp."

They walked in the direction Leo had come from.

"So, long day, wasn't it?" Leo said suddenly.

"Tell me about it," Hazel said. Rome seemed so far away now. She couldn't believe they had gone to the Pantheon and battled crazy manatee guys and armoured manikins, and still fought off Roman Smeagols and met the Ferrari guy. Most importantly, she couldn't believe they had lost Percy and Annabeth.

She remembered their encounter with the horse tamer. "It was the first time I met a Roman from outside Camp," she said.

"Hazel, we are just from an entire city filled with Romans," Leo said. "What are you talking about?"

She gave him a look. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, he said dumbly. "But who was that guy kidding? I mean Manlius, it's obvious he made that name up."

Hazel laughed as she thought about the horse tamer's name, Horatius Manlius Superbus.

"He was probably the wimp of the Legion and made the name up so that the other guys would stop picking on him," he continued. "That's probably why he became a horse tamer, they probably made him clean the stables everyday." Leo laughed cruelly.

"You can be real mean at times, Leo," she said, still smiling. "What about your Roman name? It's made up too."

"It is, but come on, you have to admit it's cool."

Hazel eyed him. "Awesomus, really? That's all you could come up with."

"Hazel, a Roman name reflects the attributes of a person. I'm awesome, hence Awesomus."

"Oh really. Explain Minibus then."

"Oh that's easy. Big things come in small packages baby." He motioned at himself and Hazel laughed.

They walked on, still not seeing their camp anywhere.

"I'm worried about Nico," Hazel said.

"Don't worry about him," Leo said. "He survived Tartarus. That's like the ultimate boot camp for demigods."

"Yeah, but that's the thing. Ever since he came back from there he's been different. He's more…fragile. Nico used to be one who took care of me. Now I'm the one taking care of him. It's just…weird."

Leo nodded. "From what he tells us about his quests, it doesn't look like he's done any of those things. But he's pretty powerful for a twelve year old. Although he's incredibly thin. Where does he live?"

"Hades, with Dad."

"Wow, someone should call child services on Hades."

"No, it's not that. He can't eat any of Persephone's food."

"Why, evil stepmom?"

"No, anyone alive who eats her food will never be able to leave Hades. I guess he doesn't want to take the chance."

Leo looked like he was absorbing the information. "Well, he can't just live on takeout, maybe he eats at Camp Half-Blood. He's got a cabin there, its pretty cool."

Hazel's head snapped sharply in Leo's direction. "He has a home at your Camp?

"Yeah. It turns out he was a Greek camper before he became all those other things."

Hazel frowned. She seemed to be getting her information about Nico from other people. The first chance she got, she would ask him everything.

"Hazel, you Ok?" Leo asked.

"I'm fine," she said, still trying to get her thoughts straight. "I'm just tired. Let me sit down."

She sat down and soon found herself lying on the ground staring up at the moon. She wondered if she asked Diana for help if she would answer.

"You better not fall asleep," Leo said, sitting down next to her. "The guys would freak out if we were lost for the whole night."

Hazel said nothing and continued to gaze up at the moon.

"Do you miss him?" he asked softly.

Hazel knew who Leo was talking about: Sammy. She had found out that Sammy was Leo's great grandfather, which explained their uncanny similarity. It was the first time he mentioned the issue since the blackout she had shared with him back on the Argo II.

"Sometimes," she answered. "He was really great. And funny. And he always looked out for me at school."

"I noticed," Leo said. "He was your regular knight in shining armour."

Hazel giggled. "And he never made me forget it. He was sweet like that." She had never really talked to anyone about Sammy. She had never really thought she would, especially with his doppelganger great grandson. "You know, once he took me to this ranch on a night like this on my birthday and I got to ride a horse. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me." He said nothing, but she knew he was listening. She continued to glance up at the moon.

Suddenly her view was blocked by Leo's head. His curly hair hung down the sides of his head in locks.

"Hey Hazel," he said softly. "Do you think maybe…"

He never finished his sentence as he was tackled by a dog which rolled with him on the ground in a fierce wrestle, making Violet whinny in terror and gallop away into the forest. He managed to toss the dog off him, and it landed on its feet a few feet away, growling with its teeth bared.

"Frank, man," Leo said. "It's now what you think. We were just…"

The dog leapt at him again and snapped at his throat with gleaming white teeth. Leo ignited his hands, trying to turn the beast into hot dog. The dog barked in pain, but persisted in shredding Leo into demigod minced meat.

"Leo, don't hurt him!" Hazel shouted in horror as she got to her feet. "Frank! Stop it!"

The dog bit at Leo's leg, seeing as reaching his throat would mean it had to pass his fiery hands. Leo slapped the dog with heated hands, and it jumped back and bent its ears in a savage snarl.

"Please, Frank! Hazel begged.

The dog crouched for another attack, but stopped as an arrow sank into the ground at its feet. On Hazel's right, a burly part Asian boy appeared, in his hands a bow with a nocked arrow.

"Frank!" Hazel shouted. She had never been so relieved in her two lives.

Two more dogs joined the first one and barked savagely.

"Frank, buddy," Leo said. "Am I glad to see you. Now shoot these monsters down so I can give you a hug."

"Leo, I don't think these are monsters. They look like regular dogs. I can't just shoot them down."

"Dude, haven't all monsters we've fought looked normal at first. Hurry up and send them to Tartarus." The dogs barked and drooled like they had rabies. "Fine, I'll just scare them."

Leo shot fire out of his hands and blasted the ground in front of the dogs. "Come closer! Come on! I dare you!" The dogs stood their ground, glaring at Leo with murderous eyes.

Two men came running towards them and stopped a few yards away. They were dressed like demigods, with iron armour and Greek plumed helmets. The only difference was the short red skirts they were wearing, like those guys in the movie Troy wore, and their swords which were made from iron, not celestial bronze or imperial gold. One of them pointed at Hazel as if to say, _that's the one_. Jason and Nico came running towards them and stopped when they saw what was unfolding. Before Hazel's mind could register what was happening, an arrow sprouted from Nico's shoulder. He looked at it in surprise, then collapsed on the soft earth. Before Hazel could scream, she felt a sharp pain on her leg. She looked down and saw an arrow identical to the one sticking out of Nico embedded to her thigh. Her vision went hazy and she collapsed on the ground, her last sight a worried looking Frank rushing to her side, then she was enveloped by the blackness.


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N: Guys, please help me out here. I have really awesome ideas for this story, but I'm still quite new. I already have an ending in mind, but I need reviews to get to it. Oh ya, and the person who said Nico was older than Hazel, I disagree with you. Nico's twelve (he is four years younger than Percy who's 16), Hazel's thirteen. If you count the whole Hazel being dead and Nico living in the Lotus Hotel, Hazel's still older than Nico. Oh, I forgot to mention my story is in the POVs of Leo, Hazel Jason and Annabeth. Enjoy chapter 6!)**

VI

Hazel

There was nothing Hazel hated more than getting kidnapped. Except maybe dying. She hated the feeling of waking up and not knowing where you were, or what would happen next. Which is exactly how Hazel felt as she woke up to a strange sight. She was on an old-fashioned four-poster bed with silky sheets that were creased since she had lain on them. The bed was in a large room that was decorated with brilliant gold-framed paintings and gold sculptures that looked like Michelangelo carved them himself. There were plush rugs and carpets on the floor, and the roof was made from slanted canvas, showing that Hazel was in a tent. A very large, very fancy tent.

She looked at herself. She was still fully dressed, down to her muddy shoes. There was no longer an arrow protruding from her thigh. The spot was caked in dried blood, an indication that she had not dreamt the whole encounter. It looked like her captors had just removed the arrow and did nothing else since there was no bandage or ointment or anything. She prodded the wound cautiously. It was almost fully healed, although Hazel did not taste Ambrosia or Nectar in her mouth. She got off the bed and put her weight on her injured leg. There was a slight throbbing, but she could still stand. She heard movement outside the room and a petite black-haired young woman walked in, carrying fresh towels on one arm and what looked like an old-fashioned Greek garment on the other. Hazel backed away from her and almost tripped over the bed.

"Who are you?" she asked the strange woman suspiciously. "What do you want with me?"

The woman smiled warmly. She spoke in a language Hazel didn't understand, but thought sounded familiar.

"I can't hear what you're saying," she told the woman.

She didn't seem to understand Hazel either as she frowned as Hazel spoke. The two of them stood there looking at each other, until the woman broke the silence. She started speaking rapidly in her Gibberish and held up the things in her hands towards Hazel. She eyed them cautiously and took them with both hands. The woman gestured towards a conjoining room and Hazel followed her to it. The room was a simple bathroom equipped with a strange-looking bathtub and sink. There was a mirror in one corner and Hazel went and stood in front of it. She was a mess. Her hair was dishevelled and her face dirty. Her jeans were caked with mud and dried blood. Overall, she looked like a demi-hobo. She cleaned herself up while trying to figure out where she was. She hoped she was still in Italy. That would make it easier for her friends to find her. If her friends were not captured along with her.

She wonder who her captors were. Probably servants of Gaea, she thought bitterly. But something seemed off. Why would Gaea show her so much hospitality? And why did she have to capture Hazel? Why not kill her? The Earth goddess had made it pretty clear that she wanted her and the others except, Percy and Annabeth, to be killed. Hazel frowned in puzzlement as she combed her curly hair with an ornamented comb she found next to the sink. And which figure from Roman mythology was this fancy, she thought to herself. She wouldn't be surprised if Julius Caesar had kidnapped her.

She wore the old-fashioned garment over her clothes and walked slowly out of the bathroom. Aphrodite had wanted to give her a makeover back in Charleston. Hazel didn't mind the way she looked before. Frankly, she thought she looked ridiculous in this white Greek dress.

Outside, the woman said something incoherent and walked out of the room. Hazel guessed the woman wanted her to follow her so she walked behind her and allowed her to lead her down a wide passageway towards a tent door flap where two guards adorned in Greek armour stood motionless, armed with wooden spears topped with iron tips. As they approached, the guards did not even move their heads to look at them. They reminded Hazel of the royal English guard, except without the tall hats and red uniform. So my captors are Greek, she thought to herself as she tried to piece together the mystery of her capture.

The maid (Hazel guessed she was a maid) led her into a brightly-lit, spacious room with a long dining table that lay bare at that moment. Hazel caught her breath, not because the room was decorated in intricate artwork and marvellous golden and marble sculptures depicting ancient military life and the beauty of women. Not because there was a giant map of Southern Europe filled with markings and colouring hanging on the tent canvas on her left. But because on the edge of the long table sat her brother, Nico di Angelo.

He had also cleaned up after himself (or had been cleaned) and was wearing a white toga-like garment, which Hazel found strange considering she was used to him wearing black or dark clothes. His hands were entwined on the table, and his skull ring gleamed on his finger. His hair was slicked back so he looked like an old-fashioned Russian spy. For the first time, Hazel saw Nico's full visage. Usually, it was obscured by the curtain of hair that hung as low as his eyes which kept his face in a perpetual shadow. Hazel could see that Nico was quite handsome like most demigods, and his eyes were slightly squinted, maybe because he was not used to having nothing to cover his eyes. She saw a wild look in them, the look of a madman that reminded her of Pluto. They also looked old and weary, like they had seen a thousand years' worth of experiences. He had a high forehead, a symbol of intelligence (at least, that's what Hazel's mother used to tell her), pale ears and slightly thick eyebrows. Without his usual curtain of hair, he didn't look as daunting as he usually did.

Next to him, on the table, sat an armoured man in his early twenties. He was handsome and had long golden blond hair that hung to his shoulders, and a short blond beard. His eyes were bright blue. He had a Greek plumed helmet under his arm and was engaged in an animated conversation with Nico, but turned when Hazel stood at the other end of the table.

"Ah, Lady Hazel," he said, dipping his head slightly. "So good you've finally joined us."

Hazel looked at Nico who gave her a reassuring look.

"Who are you?" she asked the man. "And how do you know who I am?"

"Why, Master Nico told me," he replied nonchalantly. "As for who I am, they call me Alexander, king of Macedonia and conqueror of the Eastern Lands. And son of Zeus."

Hazel was stunned. "You're Alexander, as in Alexander the Great?"

Alexander nodded. "One of my many titles. Although not as impressive as yours, Hazel, daughter of Hades, bane of Alcyoneus, last of the Chosen of Hera. And," he added, "ghost queen."

Hazel was about to interject, to clarify that her father was Pluto not Hades, and that she was not a ghost queen (more like metal queen, she though to herself), when Nico gave her a warning look. _Just go with it_, it said. It looked like Nico had done a little lying. But why, Hazel wondered.

Bright red rubies popped up around her shoes as she grew more apprehensive. Alexander stood up and Hazel saw that he was quite tall. He doesn't look kingly at all, Hazel thought. There was a humble nature about him that aroused a conflict within her with the legends she had heard about him. The fact that he was clad in regular Greek warrior type wear, only differing slightly since his breastplate was engraved with swirling Persian patterns and on his hip was a dull bronze short sword. Hazel almost gasped. She could sense the celestial bronze in the sword, but it was mixed with some other metal. Mortal iron, to be exact. She knew that metals such as celestial bronze and imperial gold could not touch mortals while mortal metals could not harm monsters. A combination of the two was almost unbearable to ponder.

"Most of those things were by luck," Hazel said modestly. "Especially the ghost queen part." She paused for a second, then pressed on. "Wait, did you just say you're a son of Zeus? I didn't know you're a demigod."

"Yes, Hazel, I am son of the Sky god. With his guidance, I have conquered much of the known world, and will conquer the Unknown Lands in the future."

Hazel remembered when Nico had told her most important historical figures were demigods. He even told her that World War II, that horrible war she had lived through, was a war between the children of Jupiter and Neptune, and the children of Pluto. That was the reason, Nico had said, that there are a few children of the Big Three today. They almost destroyed the world all by themselves. They were too powerful, too unpredictable. Hazel had thought hard about what Nico had said. He had said the children of Pluto were on the Axis side. That means, Hazel thought with a pained expression, I'm related to Nazis and Hitler was my half-brother. She couldn't accept it, and she never would.

"But it was not only through Zeus' help that I achieved what I did," Alexander continued. "With every conquest, the gods rewarded me for expanding their domains. I became, and still remain, their champion."

Hazel expressed a show of relief. "So you serve the gods?" He nodded, but Hazel frowned slightly. "But then how did you get back to the mortal world."

"Why, through the Doors of Death of course." Alexander's calm indifference was starting to worry Hazel. "The Earth Mother pulled me out of Elysium with the promise of the conquest of Rome."

Hazel had to grip the edge of the table. "So you serve Gaea," she said, almost shouting. "I thought you were champion of the gods. How could you betray them like this?"

"Betray them?" Alexander shouted, shocking Hazel. "I'm saving the gods. I'm saving our homeland. When I found out that Greece was taken over by these impudent Romans, the gods forced to take on new identities, I vowed to restore them. I will destroy Rome, and this so called_ America_, and the gods will once again be only Greek. Just as was intended."

Hazel at last realised Alexander's plan. When she had first arrived at the Roman camp, she had learnt that the gods settle in centres of Western civilization. They had gone from Greece to Rome to England then finally to America. Since the Roman Empire was the most influential, the gods still retained their Roman aspects. Hazel had also learnt that the gods were immortal, and the only way to kill them was by destroying their domain. Alexander was planning to destroy Rome and therefore the gods' Roman aspect, then after that move on to America and destroy their modern aspects. Hazel wasn't concerned much about America. The gods were back there. They would destroy Alexander's army before he even reached Manhattan. Hazel was more concerned about Rome. It was virtually unguarded, they had seen that with the twin giants almost destroying it just this week. Hazel wondered if Camp Jupiter would still exist if the Roman gods were destroyed.

"Don't you see," she said desperately. "This is part of Gaea's plan. She's evil, Alexander. She wants to destroy all of civilization."

"No, you don't see. These other aspects confuse the gods. I have seen them. They have gone mad and sick. In this condition they will surely be destroyed. Recently, I saw Athena. I was her favourite king. Now she doesn't even recognize me. She's lost and confused. She was kidnapped by these foul Romans."

Nico raised his head and spoke for the first time. "About the Athena issue," he said. "We've sorted it out already, so it's all good."

Hazel knew Nico was talking about the Parthenos.

"It doesn't matter," Alexander said. "These other godly aspects will only hinder the gods in battle. I only wish to help them, to save civilization from Gaea."

As much as Hazel despised Gaea, she had to admit her plan was cunning. Alexander was a good guy, she could feel it, but Gaea had deceived him into doing something he thought was right while he was in reality working for her. No matter how much Hazel tried to tell him that Gaea was deceiving him, he just wouldn't listen. She decided to come to the task at hand.

"Why have you kidnapped us then?" she asked him.

"I apologise for that," he said with no hint of remorse. "I had to get you two away from your friends. After all, I didn't need them."

Hazel swallowed nervously when she saw that Alexander had abducted her and Nico, children of the Underworld.

"Why us?" she asked in a barely audible voice. "What do you want with me and Nico?"

Nico looked at Alexander expectantly, but Hazel suspected he already knew the answer. The armoured man's lips curved slightly in a smile.

"It's simple really. When I was brought back to the mortal world, I came back with just my army. My family was left behind." He walked closer to Hazel until he towered over her. "I want you to bring them back."

Hazel couldn't resist snapping back. "Why don't you ask Gaea to bring them back?" she asked.

"I tried," he replied. "But she will only bring them back once I've conquered Rome. I cannot wait that long. Now," he took another menacing step towards her, "Will you help me?"

Nico stood up and walked towards them. "I've already told you," he said with an impatient voice. "We can't help you. Our father doesn't allow it."

"Ah yes, you've made the point quite clear, Master Nico. But I know children of Hades. You do not need your father to bring back the dead."

Alexander was right. Hazel had seen Nico do it first hand. Heck, she had been brought back to life by him. So Nico had tried to lie to Alexander again, she thought.

"Look, Alexander," she began. "To bring back your family, we'll need to use the Doors of Death, and right now, it's heavily guarded by Gaea's forces."

Alexander shook his head. "I have seen a child of Hades do it without the Doors." He drew a deep breath. "Look Hazel, I just want to see my family again. I know you and your brother here can make that happen. So I'm going to leave you to it. If you don't do as I ask, I'm afraid I will not let you go."

"What do you mean you won't let us go?" Nico asked, suddenly angry. "Do you know who we are?"

"I'm afraid I do," Alexander replied. "I know everything about children of the Underworld, including how to stop you from escaping."

His face broke into a smirk and Hazel suddenly realised that the room was too bright. Didn't Nico mention he could teleport by manipulating shadows…

Nico's pale face was almost glowing from the reflected light. His eyes darted around before settling on Alexander with an annoyed expression.

"You cannot keep us here!" he shouted. "I will destroy you!"

Hazel was taken aback. She had never heard Nico raise his voice, not even in Senate meetings. She was encountering a side of Nico she had never encountered before.

Nico drew his sword (apparently he had not been disarmed) and pointed its tip at Alexander's neck. Hazel hadn't brought her calvary sword with her when she went to ride Violet so she watched ominously as her brother threatened Alexander the Great. The tall man chuckled derisively and drew his own blade, the dull bronze shining alarmingly.

"Dear boy," he said. "I have defeated the Persian god Mithras in combat. You are nothing."

Alexander seemed to have forgotten Hazel, which annoyed her greatly. That sexist jerk, she thought. She extended her right hand and Alexander's sword leaped from his grasp and into hers. He looked at her in mild surprise as she brandished it in his direction while standing next to Nico.

"Have you ever gone against two children of the Underworld?" Hazel asked confidently. "I hear it's quite fun."

She glanced at Nico and she saw a hint of a smile on his lips.

"You are actually considering fighting against me?" Alexander shouted, looking aghast. "Have you forgotten that I have an army of a million men at my command? Guards!" Moments later the two guards Hazel had seen, followed by ten others, entered the room carrying swords and spears.

"Bring your army!" Nico shouted defiantly. "We'll destroy them too!"

With that he swung his sword at the ground and cut a gash in the ground.

**(A/N: Guys, in case you think Nico is acting OOC, he's not. He was like that in PJO (what with the whole "I'll never forgive you Percy" and him roasting king Minos, Geryon and all those other guys). I think Riordan made him too quiet and chilled in HoO, probably because he wasn't in much conflict in SoN and MoA. BTW, Nico's like my favourite character in the whole PJO and HoO. He's just too gansta! Hazel's my favourite female character cos she's cool, carries a sword instead of a knife (do I need to mention names?), is a child of the Big Three so is in league with Percy and Jason and them, and she has awesome metal manipulation Magneto powers. Stay tuned for more Underworld kids vs Alexander the Great in the next chapter.)**


	7. Chapter 7

VII

Hazel

Hazel had never seen her brother in combat before. His face was set with determination and confidence, his dark eyes glinting with hidden power and a slight hint of madness. The only time she had seen him using his powers the most was when he fidgeted and unintentionally summoned a skeletal mouse back at Camp Jupiter. But to her he always radiated power beneath the layers of scary, much like Percy and Jason do. She guessed she was the only one who sensed it because she was a daughter of Pluto. She knew Nico's potential. It was about time Alexander the Great knew it as well.

The gash on the floor widened into a fissure and skeletons in military wear, some Greek, some in modern desert camouflage wear, others in Aztec and Mayan wear, climbed out and bore for the armed guard. The summoning didn't exhaust him. In fact, he looked perfectly fine. The undead warriors clashed blades with the armed guard and a battle ensured. Alexander extended his hand and a celestial bronze spear materialised from thin air into his open hand. He twirled it around expertly like some kind of Ancient Greek warrior drum major and swung at Nico, who raised his Stygian Iron sword to block the attack, the metallic clang resonating across the room. The Macedonian king stabbed at Nico's torso, but the boy sidestepped, twisted around and swung at Alexander's hip.

The king proved very swift, however, as he met Nico's strike with the shaft of his spear, knocking the boy's sword from its intended trajectory. The king then went on the offensive, stabbing and hacking at Nico who desperately tried to defend himself. From the skirmish, Hazel could tell that Nico was not as good at swordfighting as Percy and Jason. She wagered that even she could beat him at it. She also noticed that Nico wasn't comfortable with using his sword. He's probably used to fighting only using his powers, she thought. Right now she doubted if he had enough energy to fight a full battle against a champion demigod who has probably been blessed by all the gods with just his powers. Alexander, on the other hand, fought with great skill and prowess that reminded Hazel of Chrysaor the demigod pirate. If Percy didn't stand a chance against a guy like that, Hazel thought, how much longer can Nico hold on?

Moments after she thought this, Alexander disarmed Nico, sending the dark blade scuttling under the long table. The king brought the shaft of his spear smashing against Nico's chest. With an audible _oof_, the boy was sent skidding a few metres back where he lay on his back, trying to regain his breath. Hazel let out a mental gasp. She had had enough. She gripped Alexander's sword tightly in her hand and dashed forward to attack the Macedonian king. She was not used to using a short sword, and for a second she doubted whether she would be able to fight him. As she approached him, Alexander was twirling his spear around, looking like it was suddenly too hot for him to handle. Before she reached him, he slammed the sharp point of the spear into the ground, and this time Hazel gasped outwardly.

The ground where the spear struck ripped open and out of the fissure created a bony hand, followed by a Greek warrior skeleton, rose right in front of her. For a moment she stood there, not fully comprehending what was happening.

"What the…Wha…I thought you were a son of Zeus?" Hazel found herself blurting.

Alexander smiled cruelly and the skeleton bore on Hazel while brandishing its iron sword menacingly. Hazel still hadn't recovered from the shock when the skeleton swung its sword straight at her neck. On instinct, she willed the sword to stop in its tracks. It obeyed Hazel, staying in one spot in the air as the skeleton desperately tried to push it forward. She then tore it from the skeleton's grasp and willed it to hack the skeleton to bits. Hazel was amazed at herself. Just the night before she was that Pluto was not as cool as Hades. Now that she thought of it, her powers were actually cool. Pluto's not bad after all, she thought.

Alexander's smile faded and he stabbed at Hazel with the spear. She parried the strike and swung her sword in an upward arc. He easily blocked, hitting her sword hard and causing jarring pain to shoot up her arm. The king swung the butt of the spear at her face at lightning speed. Hazel barely got her arm up to block and the heavy metal bashed against her sword arm with unexpected ferocity. Hazel cried out as she felt the crunching of bone and the sharp pain that immediately followed. She staggered backwards, her sword cluttering uselessly to the ground. Alexander's spear started twitching like it had a mind of its own and he started moving it about as if it was burning his hands. He pointed the spear at Hazel's fallen blade and then up at her face. As the spear tip moved from the sword to her face, the sword on the ground quivered slightly before it rose, on its own, from the ground towards her exposed face.

She ducked at the last minute, the blade whirling past her left eye and chopping off a bit of her hair. The blade stopped about nine feet up and fell back on her at Alexander's command. She tensed, realising that she wouldn't be able to move out of the way on time. She extended her uninjured hand upwards, willing the sword to stop in mid-air. She thanked her Pluto metal controlling powers, but it seemed they were not enough. She grunted as she struggled to push the sword away from her while Alexander pushed it downwards with the pointing of the spear. With an inward gasp, she finally figured out what was happening. Alexander had hit Nico with the spear and was then able to summon skeletons. The spear had caught Hazel on the arm and Alexander had been able to control metal. After touching them with the spear, Alexander could do what they could do.

The spear was stealing their powers.

"The power of the Spear of Victory is just fascinating, isn't it?" Alexander huffed as he pushed the spear downwards with both hands.

Hazel released the sword and dove out of the way as the dull bronze blade hacked the air where she had just stood. She landed on her back, sliding a few inches backwards in the process. She scrambled to get up, taking care not to put weight on her injured arm. She fought back tears and let out a stifled moan. Her pain on her arm was excruciating. She cradled her arm gingerly, bursts of piercing pain flaring up every time she touched the lower part of her forearm, right near the wrist. Just after she came back to life she had relished every bit of pain she had gotten, seeing it as a sign that she was alive. After all, she had not been feeling pain for almost seventy years. Right now however, her mind wasn't even considering relishing the pain. In fact, her mind couldn't set her thoughts straight. The pain was even clouding her vision.

She almost didn't see Alexander making his way towards her, ready to send her back to the Underworld. She willed the dull bronze sword from the ground to her hand and stood as defiantly as she could with an ancient Greek dress on and a short sword she was not used to carrying on a hand that wasn't her sword hand. To her surprise, the Macedonian king did not attack. He had the butt of his evil spear firmly planted on the ground and was using it as a walking staff. As he drew near, she held the sword in front of her and held it towards his face menacingly.

"It is best you give up now, Hazel," he said calmly. "You cannot defeat me. But unfortunately I can't kill you. I still need you to raise my family from the dead. Surrender now and I might just let you leave once you're done."

"Not a chance," she replied. "We've taken on worse than you."

Alexander sighed outwardly. "If I kill you, do you promise to come back here? Preferably with my family?" He realised the impossibility of his request (Hazel would not come back here), and tried for a new one. "I can just kill you and keep your brother alive as collateral."

Hazel didn't reply. She dashed forward and stabbed at his chest. He sidestepped and bashed her sword from its path. He brought the spear end upwards and aimed for her face. She instinctively ducked sideways and swung at his leg. He blocked again, this time with the spear tip, and swung in a horizontal arc towards her neck. She crouched while at the same time bashing the spear with her sword out of its fatal trajectory. He continued hacking and stabbing at her while she desperately blocked, ducked and parried. Alexander was quickly overpowering her. His brutal hackings were slowly weakening her new sword arm which felt like a hundred tonnes of lead. The searing pain of muscle fatigue mixed with the pain of fractured bone on her right arm made her want to throw down her sword and surrender.

But she wouldn't give up. She was Roman.

She leapt backwards as the king swung his spear in a downwards vertical arc. Just in time too. She would have been cleaved in half. In desperation, she opted to use her powers. This particular power she hadn't used in a long time. She usually avoided it since it used up too much of her energy. The last time she had used it she had been knocked unconscious for an entire day. She had no other choice. Alexander was too powerful. She was about to lose, but at least she would go down fighting. That was the Roman way.

She closed her eyes as she jumped back, and concentrated hard. She felt a tug at the pit of her stomach, and as she landed on her feet, the ground underneath her broke.

The ground cracked and shook, large fissures travelling from Hazel towards Alexander. He staggered and the spear dropped from his hands as the ground beneath him shook and convulsed. The tug in Hazel's stomach became almost painful. It felt like all her strength was seeping to it. She tried to stand up straight, to charge the Macedonian king while he was disoriented, but she couldn't. She felt weak and lightheaded, her arm throbbing through her skin. She stumbled backwards and felt her knees give away, the same moment the ground stopped shaking. She didn't however hit the ground as she felt cold hands grab her and stop her from falling. A flicker of hope ignited within Hazel. Nico was awake. She wouldn't have to fight Alexander by herself.

"Nico…" she spluttered as her brother sat her down. "The spear… it steals our powers."

Nico's eyes widened, but he quickly covered up his shock. His face took up a posture of ghastly determination.

"I'll stay out of its way then," he said in a forced positive tone.

He charged Alexander and pressed the king in offensive twists, hacks and stabs of his black blade. Alexander defended himself without much effort, his twirling spear which had flown to his hand when Nico charged, forming a primitive shield against Nico's savage attacks. Hazel watched the battle with mild fascination; she was more concerned with getting her energy back and her breathing even. She leaned her head against the table as she watched Nico switching from offensive to defensive, his short sword whirling around him trying to prevent the evil spear from touching him. Nico didn't have enough time. Soon Alexander would overpower him again.

Hazel had to act now.

She stood up gingerly, her head throbbing from the sudden change in orientation. She still had some energy left, and she figured out the only way to stop Alexander. Luck.

And she knew how to change luck.

She closed her eyes and felt for all precious rocks under her. Moments later a fist sized amethyst sprouted next to her foot. She picked it up and threw it over Nico's head, who was holding on to his sword while Alexander hacked at it repeatedly with the spear in a furious rage.

"Hey Alex!" she said. "Think fast!"

Fortunately for her, Alexander had great reflexes. He caught the rock and looked at it curiously, which provided ample time for Nico to get back on the offensive and for Hazel to join the fight. The dull bronze sword flew to her outstretched left hand stabbed at Alexander's chest. The king dropped the amethyst on time to grab his spear with both hands and swing it from left to right, parrying both hers and Nico's swords. He brought the spear over his head and attempted to cleave Hazel in half, but Nico stepped in front of her and blocked the strike. Hazel twisted around Nico and swung her sword in an upward arc towards Alexander's ribs. He managed to block and swing his spear towards her, but he changed the direction of trajectory at the last minute to block Nico's strike. The two kids were on the offensive, hacking and stabbing at the Macedonian king who managed to keep his calm, but was now fighting to the best of his ability. Despite their best efforts, Alexander did not get overwhelmed. In fact, they were the ones who started feeling the pressure. No matter how they attacked, he always managed to block each and every one of their attacks. Would the amethyst's curse kick in already, she thought.

She couldn't have thought that thought sooner.

Alexander was twirling the spear parallel to himself when the spear tip caught the table and was embedded in the dark wood. As he struggled to pull the tip put of the table, Nico ran forward and jump-kicked his right hand, causing it to release the spear. Alexander was thrown back suddenly by an unseen force and fell on his back on a pile of cracked earth, releasing his other grip on the spear. The ground shuddered slightly and one crack widened into a fissure. Skeletal hands grabbed every part of the Macedonian king they could grab and pulled him into the dark abyss. He struggled and tore bony hands from their sockets (literally) and slowly tried to sit up. Hazel watched as beads of sweat ran down Nico's exposed face. The strain of opening a portal to Hades was almost too much for him to bear.

"Hazel," he said in a voice as low as a whisper. "Help me…"

Hazel brought her hands together, palms facing each other like she was holding something between them. She felt a familiar tug in her stomach and slowly brought her hands together. As they inched closer, she saw Alexander's breast and back plates contort and bend inward. Within moments he was gasping for breath as the pieces of armour prevented his chest from expanding. Hazel stopped pushing her hands together and slowly dragged them downwards. Alexander, who was almost standing up, was forced on his knees by Hazel's powers. Skeletal hands grabbed his legs and arms, some of the longer arms clawing at his face and pulling him into the abyss. The king's struggle became less vicious as he lost more energy due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs. He managed to free a hand and extend it upward, so that it was the last bit of Alexander the saw. The ground closed itself above the hand and the portal to Hades was closed.

Hazel slumped against the table in exhaustion and tried to even her breathing. She gripped the edge of the table to stop herself from falling. Nico bent over and placed his hands on his knees. He looked like he had run a marathon in a full sprint. Hazel looked at him cautiously.

"So what do we do now?" she asked him slowly.

Nico wheezed for a few seconds before he looked up at her, his eyebrows arching upward and his forehead wrinkling below his hairline.

"We get back to the others," he replied. "But not before we sort this mess out."

"How exactly are we going to sort it out?"

He straightened slowly and sheathed his sword and removed the white toga he was wearing, revealing his usual black (but clean) T-shirt and jeans. For a moment the expression on his face was like, _how could you let me wear this_?

"It's quite simple really. We lie." Hazel waited for him to elaborate. "Alexander must have told them why he kidnapped us, right? So we tell them that he got what he wanted."

Hazel's brows inched closer together. "I'm still not following you. I don't think he wanted us to kill him."

"We didn't kill him. He's still alive, just that he's in Hades. Anyway, here's my plan, I disappear, then we tell them he went with me to the Underworld to fetch his family and that he told you to tell them to postpone the attack on Rome until he comes back."

Hazel was doubtful. "What if they don't believe us?"

"Lets just hope they do. Besides, Alexander's four generals always quarrel about everything. With any luck, by the time they come to an agreement, the gods will have come to their senses and send these guys back to the Underworld."

Hazel was still doubtful, but they didn't have any other choice. There was no way they could face an entire army by themselves. She doubted if even both Greek and Roman demigods combined could take them on once all differences had been settled. She glanced at the doorway where a mix of dead warriors and undead warriors lay in a haphazard heap.

"How do we explain that?" she asked, pointing at the pile.

"Oh, them?" Nico said. "His loyal guard decided to accompany him on his quest." He waved a hand nonchalantly in the doorway's direction which was in shadow from the lack of light outside the room. The heap dissolved in a pool of shadow and within moments had vanished. He staggered slightly. "It's gonna be fine, Hazel. You just worry about Gaea and her giants."

She nodded slowly. Nico was right. She had too much to worry about. Besides Gaea and the giants there was the Doors, Percy and Annabeth, traversing the Ancient Lands without a flying ship.

Leo…

With all the excitement she had almost forgotten about last night (was it last night?) when Leo almost…

_Snap out of it, Hazel_, she berated herself. _You have a boyfriend for Pluto's sake. A boyfriend who you love so much._ And she did love Frank. She recently realised this. He was the nicest boy she had ever met. He was big, and cute. They had gone on an adventure together. He had entrusted her with his life. Sure she harboured a few Sammy feelings. Who wouldn't? He was her first boyfriend. A boyfriend she had never even broken up with…

_It doesn't matter now_, she thought. _Sammy's dead. Frank's my boyfriend now._ She closed her eyes for a moment. She felt so guilty, like she had betrayed Frank. _Don't be silly Hazel, you just talked with Leo_, she told herself. _Nothing else happened_. She looked around the brightly-lit room. She couldn't wait to get out of here. To get back to Frank. She was going to give him the biggest hug ever.

Nico picked up his discarded toga and wrapped it around his hands. He walked over to the spear that was hanging off the edge of the table and gingerly pulled it out. He walked with it towards the middle of the long table, where he pointed the spear tip at the dark table top and he concentrated hard. Suddenly, the spear twitched and arching electricity crackled along its length. There was a smell of ozone as lightning leaped from the spear tip and blasted the mahogany table in half. Hazel was forced to stand up as the table collapsed under her. She looked at Nico quizzically.

He shrugged. "I figured since the spear absorbed our powers, it would absorb his as well since he was the last person to touch it." He held the spear in one hand and tried to raise one half of the table until it stood by itself at an angle. "I'll go tell the others where you are," he told her. "We'll come back for you." With that he walked into the shadow of the turned over table and disappeared.

For a second Hazel stared at the spot where Nico was, thinking, _that's so cool_. She then left the room and looked for any people she could tell her lie to, preferably Alexander's four generals. She found herself outdoors with the early afternoon sun glaring down at her. Hazel held her breath. Alexander's camp was huge. Tent pavilions and barracks were all she could see, with archery ranges, stables and other assortments of tents she didn't know their use. There was bustling activity as an entire city of people prepared for war. Hazel looked around. It didn't take long for her to find one of the generals (at least, she assumed he was a general). He was on horseback and was in full Greek armour that was decorated with medals. He looked big and his face was hidden beneath a Greek helm. When Hazel told him the lie, he fidgeted about with his horse and galloped towards one of the tents, telling Hazel to stay put so that he could go and discuss this matter with the other generals.

Hazel leaned against a wooden post and looked around, searching for a way to escape.

**A/N: Oh, by the way guys, after HoH I plan on continuing the story by writing my version of the last book in the HoO series called "The Last Centurion" (This is my title, not Riordan's). This whole thing with the Wraith is tied to the last book so stay tuned.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Don't worry guys, just four more chapters then we're off to Tartarus! (I wish Percy and Annabeth were this excited). Anyway, enjoy Jason's POV.**

VIII

Jason

Jason wasn't feeling like a great leader. Sure it was only natural for him to lead, in Annabeth and Percy's absence and all. He was after all the son of Jupiter, meaning he outranked them all in their little group. He just wished someone besides him would lead, because he felt lousy enough as it is.

It's not like he thought we wasn't a good leader. He knew he was a good leader. He had led the Fifth Cohort since he was twelve. He had been Praetor for more than a year. He had led Romans on quests since almost the time he came to camp. He had even led Piper and Leo, Greek demigods, on a quest or two. But since Annabeth and Percy's fall into Tartarus, he had led his friends from one disaster to another.

First it was leaving the ship. Maybe he should have listened to Leo. Maybe they should have waited while Leo fixed the ship. He could have installed Archimedes' sphere and upgraded the ship. Maybe by now it would be ready and they could be in Athens right now, robbing a dead guy's grave. Instead they were on the ground, on Gaea's territory, looking for a way to save Hazel from crazy mortal warriors.

Under his leadership, they had been attacked by winged demons and crazy pegasi, all in one day. Jason wished he knew what to do next.

He had talked with Nico the night before. He had needed the son of Hades to clarify what he was getting them into with the whole gravedigger of Athens issue. Nico had assured him that this was the only way to close the Doors without someone staying behind in Tartarus. Jason had then asked him about his stay in Tartarus.

"How was it," he had asked. "How great is Gaea's army."

Nico had looked at him with eyes that looked broken, like something inside him had died.

"It's greater than we can handle," he had said. "Maybe with both camps we could. Maybe with the Last Centurion…" Before Jason could ask what he meant, Nico had continued. "It's going to get quite nasty, Jason. Imagine every monster that has ever walked or that ever will walk this earth, all on Gaea's side, fighting us at the base of Mount Olympus, a single drop of blood from us resulting in her awakening."

"We have to get to those Doors," Jason had said. "Maybe we can drive the monsters back to Tartarus then close the Doors."

Jason had never really considered the hordes of monsters awaiting them. For him, killing monsters was easy. It had been easy since he was fourteen. He had always been focused on the giants. The monsters are just obstacles in his way. _Kinda like a videogame_, he had thought. _There were always the little guys you have to kill before you get to the big boss_. But he doubted whether he would be able to take on that many monsters.

Nico had assured him that they would, and a silence had settled over them. Nico had broken the silence by telling him how he met Percy and arrived at Camp Half-Blood. As he told the story, Jason had sensed that there were details Nico was leaving out. Important details. Nico had been halfway through explaining how Percy got his Achilles' curse when they had heard Hazel's scream.

When they had gotten to the scene they had found the snarling dogs in front of Leo's wall of fire, and Frank aiming a bow at two Greek warriors. Before Jason could have registered what was happening, an arrow from somewhere in the dark forest had whizzed past him and had embedded itself in Nico's shoulder. The next couple of minutes had been a blur as more warriors had emerged and battled him, Frank and Leo while the first two warriors had carried Nico and Hazel away into the night. By the time they defeated them, it was already too late. The children of the Underworld were gone.

Now Jason was wading stealthily through the multiple tents, looking for any clue that would lead him to Hazel. Frank circled overhead in the form of a bald eagle. Jason and Frank had left their other friends back at their little camp in the woods, along with Nico who had returned a few minutes earlier and told them where to find Hazel before falling into a deep sleep. Leo and Piper had wanted to come as well, but Jason had tasked them with guarding Nico since he clearly looked like he had escaped (and by the looks of things, barely) and those crazy Greek guys could come back and kidnap him again. Jason figured Frank should come with him since Hazel is his girlfriend and all.

Above him, Frank screeched something in bird language which Jason understood as, "_The big tent is up ahead_." Jason was glad he could talk to birds. It made finding Hazel much easier.

He ducked behind a horse and two warrior dudes walked past him. He was watching them take a left into a tent, when something bumped into him suddenly. He was about to draw his _gladius_ when he spotted the curly hair and the amber eyes.

It was Hazel.

"Jason!" she exclaimed quietly. "So good to see you! Where are the others?"

"Hazel, you're alive. Well, Frank's right abov-" he didn't finish the sentence as he looked up and didn't see Frank, or any bird for that matter.

"Frank!" Hazel exclaimed.

Jason's gaze fell back to the ground where Frank now stood crushing Hazel in an embrace. Frank's face was plastered with a silly smile while Hazel looked like she was about to cry. Her hair was dishevelled and Jason saw a large bruise on her right forearm.

"Hazel, you're hurt," Frank said with a worried expression.

"It's fine, I'm Ok," she said weakly, but her wincing indicated she wasn't.

Frank pulled out a square of Ambrosia wrapped in tin foil and practically forced it into her mouth. After swallowing the god-food, Hazel looked much better.

"Come on, guys" Jason told them. "Let's get out of here."

They managed to get away from the war camp and into the forest. As soon as they were far enough not to be spotted, Frank turned into a giant eagle and carried Hazel on his back. Jason flew besides them and within minutes they were back in the small clearing where their little camp was situated. Leo and Piper were sitting around the campfire which was now a pile of smoking cinders. Nico had his head propped against a log, his eyes closed and his hands on his chest so it looked like he was dead. His John Travolta hairstyle made look just about ready for the coffin. As soon as they landed, Hazel collapsed next to Piper. She looked exhausted, like she swam across the Atlantic. Her eyes were glazed and bloodshot. She also appeared to be wearing a dress, something Jason had never seen her wear.

"What happened to you guys?" Leo asked her.

Frank looked at him somberly. "We should let them rest," he said in a low voice.

"It's Ok, Frank," Hazel managed, looking at Frank with assurance and what Jason thought looked suspiciously like guilt. She told them about her encounter with Alexander and how she tricked his generals into stalling their attack on Rome.

Leo whistled appreciatively. "So you guys actually _killed_ Alexander the Great."

Piper elbowed him in the ribs.

"We didn't kill him," Hazel said defiantly. "We just sent him to the Underworld."

"Last time I checked, sending someone to the place people go when they die _is_ killing them."

Jason sat down next to Piper. He took her hand in his and smiled at her before turning to Hazel.

"Look, it doesn't matter," he said to Hazel who was scowling at Leo. "The important thing is that you guys managed to stop Alexander from destroying Rome. Maybe once the Greeks and Romans have stopped fighting, the gods will pull their act together and destroy his army. Maybe once we close the Doors…" Jason stopped talking. With everything that had been going on, he had almost forgotten about their main mission, closing the Doors of Death, making the playing field even.

"Yeah, you guys did well," Piper told Hazel. "How did Nico pull off an entire battle in his state?"

"They must have fed him Ambrosia," Hazel replied thoughtfully. "Alexander must have seen that he was weak so he patched him up so he could use his powers to bring back his family." She glanced at Nico. "It looks like he wasn't back to his full health."

Jason nodded. Nico looked better than he did when he first came out of the jar, but now he was so still that he might have been dead.

Leo rubbed his hands together. "Well, no that that's settled, let get out of here. We've been on the earth for way too long. I'm surprised she hasn't sent out some nasties after us."

Piper stood up, taking Jason's hand with her. "Leo's right. We have to-"

She was cut off by the creepy rustling of leaves as if some evil little ghost was headed in their direction. Jason didn't even have to tell them to move. They all ran towards their respective pegasi, Hazel and Frank dragging a sleeping Nico, as a faint yet shrill whisper echoed in Jason's head, like Gaea was clearing her throat first before taunting him. He mounted his orange steed which galloped into the sky, his friends now far behind. Jason looked down and swore he could see the leaves forming a face…

Last night, after many failed attempts at finding and breaching Alexander's camp, they had briefly discussed where to go from there. Jason wasn't much good at geography, but he knew the map of Italy and her neighbours pretty well. All Romans had to, in case they needed to go on a highly illegal very dangerous quest to the homeland. _It's a good thing Romans are well disciplined and never break rules_, he had thought. Greece was on the south-eastern side of Italy, across a narrow stretch of the _Mare Nostrum_. Travelling south-east would take them to the northern region of Greece, where Epirus was. But they still needed to go through Athens which is in the south, so they had decided to travel south down the length of Italy. "Great! More time in the homeland!" he had said sarcastically.

Now they were flying south (at least that's what Jason thought) in a clumsy V formation at Leo's behest with Jason leading. Hazel had managed to drape Nico across her pegasus' back. He was still asleep, and this worried Jason greatly. With his pale face and limp form, he really looked like he was dead. Hazel looked worried as well, but tried not to show it.

The pegasi were really fast. They were definitely faster than those from Camp Half-Blood, even the few ones at Camp Jupiter. They were the winged horse version of sports cars, and his pegasus' orange hue made Jason feel like he was on a Lamborghini. _With our luck, we just might meet Mr Lamborghini_, he thought grimly.

He casually glanced to his right where Piper sat on her silver steed. Wind whipped her hair braid around, making the white feather in it almost look like it was part of a live bird. Her pretty face was lost in thought. Jason sighed to the rushing wind. She was seriously beautiful. It was amazing how she managed to look after herself even in the state they were in. She had to be the greatest girl he had ever dated, even if she had roasted him yesterday. Jason didn't mind about that. In fact, he was pleased. No girl had ever treated him that way, except maybe Reyna. Most girls were overly friendly when they talked to him. They were usually all giggly and agreed with everything he said. He appreciated that Piper treated him like a normal guy, not like the son of Jupiter. He would have to apologise though, when he got some time alone with her.

Jason took some time to look at all his friends. They all looked tired and miserable. Even Leo who was more ADHD than all of them was slumped against his flame red Pegasus, his fingers twitching slightly. Jason remembered back when they were still at Camp Half-Blood and they were planning ahead about what to do when they finally reached the Ancient Lands. Back then it had seemed easy. Now that they were here, he had to admit that this was the hardest quest he had ever been on. It was way harder than when he and Reyna had ventured into the sea of monsters and defeated the Trojan sea monster that had stolen Imperial Gold weapons from the Legion for centuries. This quest was even harder that when he had led the Legion to the summit of Mount Tam and toppled Saturn's black throne and defeated the Titan Krios with his bare hands. It seemed almost unfair to Jason that all this responsibility, the safety of the entire Western world rested on their shoulders.

If it wasn't them, who else could it be?

They were supposed to be the greatest demigods of the age. If they couldn't do it, then the world was doomed. And Jason could never let that happen. As long as his heart beat he would never allow Gaea to win. He shuddered slightly as he remembered the line in the Prophecy of Seven; _an oath to keep with a final breath_. He hoped it wouldn't come down to that. He hoped none of his friends would die on this quest.

Jason shifted slightly on the back of his pegasus. He guessed they had been flying for almost two hours. His back was aching from sitting straight for so long and his neck creaked as he slowly twisted it about. Up ahead he could see high rise buildings that glittered in the afternoon sun. They were nearing a city. It was not as large or as full of culture as Rome, but it was pretty big and cultured. From this distance, he could see a river that flowed through the city and the mountains around it. Although it was summer, Jason felt that it was becoming colder as they approached the city. Somewhere towards the heart of the town was an old-fashioned castle and another medieval building. As they drew nearer, he could see a Romanesque building that looked like a church. Other Romanesque buildings lay scattered throughout the city, most of which now had other elements of architecture that Annabeth could gladly explain.

By the time Leo shouted, "Look, a city!" Jason could already make out the throngs of people that were going about their daily routines. Jason knew it was because he had sharper eyesight due to his father being lord of the skies. They landed in an abandoned construction site, away from the unpredictable eyes of mortals, and dismounted their steeds. Jason's friends looked glad to be off their slightly uncomfortable rides, and they stretched their limbs about to show it.

Frank was first to raise their immediate problem. "Is it alright to be on land right now, after that close encounter with Gaea back in the forest?"

Jason bit his bottom lip. Frank was right. They have been spending too much time on the ground. They were an easy target for the earth goddess' minions. But they did need to rest and gather supplies. Sure, Piper's cornucopia would supply them with enough food and water, but they needed other things as well; showers, maybe a change of clothes. They also needed to hold a meeting, maybe look into Piper's knife again.

"Frank's right," he said out loud. "But we have to find a place to stay, maybe for the night."

"How about a hotel," Leo suggested. "A high rise hotel. We can chill in the top floor. That way we won't technically be on the ground."

The idea sounded ridiculous, like most of Leo's plan, but right now it was the best they had.

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this," Piper began reluctantly, "but I think Leo has a plan. I suggest we split up. One group can find the hotel, and another can go shopping for supplies."

Jason was glad Piper hadn't used any charmspeak on her words because he had to voice his worries.

"Is it a good idea to split up?" he asked her. "Won't it just be easier for Gaea to pick us off when we're separated?"

His mind went to the when he and Percy, with Bacchus' help, had battled the twin giants. They had decided to fight each giant together instead of separately, and they had won. That was when he realised that in order to stand a chance against Gaea, they had to work together. That was, after all, Hera's plan. _A plan that got her kicked out of Olympus_, he thought drily.

"I suppose," Piper said, "but it would be easier this way."

"She's right," a cracking voice said from atop Hazel's pegasus. It was Nico, and he was stretching and yawning vigorously like a cat after taking a nap. His hair was messed up again, like he had just woken up. Like usual. "The sooner we find accommodation off the ground, the better."

Hazel nodded. "This way we could also be on the lookout for any monsters."

Jason slowly nodded. They were right, of course.

"Great then," Piper said. "I'll go look for supplies. Jason, you'll come with me."

"I'm going as well," Hazel remarked. "I need to change this _dress_." She said the word _dress_ like monster dust was in her mouth.

"Ok then," Jason said. "That leaves-"

"Me," Leo quipped, "the dying Death Lord's son… and _Frank. _He said the word _Frank_ like he was nervous. Or guilty.

Jason wondered what had happened between Leo, Frank and Hazel. He had been vaguely aware of the strange love triangle between the three of them, but now he had the feeling that he was missing something. Something important.

Piper drew something from her pack which hung from her steed. It was a gold card. She gave it to Frank. "Here, guys. Use this to book a hotel." She pulled out another one and slipped it into her jeans pocket. "I brought these along in case we got stranded in the mortal world. Who knew they would be useful?"

Jason gave her a slight smile. With everything that has been going on, he sometimes forgot that she had a life in the mortal world. A life and a famous movie actor dad. He could relate, somehow. His mother was a famous actress and his father is Jupiter.

"Thanks Pipes," Leo said. "We don't have a limit on it, right?"

"Goodbye, Leo," she said jokingly.

Leo, Frank and Nico walked away in the direction opposite to the one Jason and the girls were going to take, with Leo asking Nico how he could sleep on a flying horse about two miles up in the sky and Nico saying something along the lines of, "With great power, comes the great need to take a nap."

Jason almost chuckled. He knew the feeling exactly. He had felt the need to sleep after summoning that storm at Fort Sumter and after battling Ephialtes and Otis.

He turned to the girls and offered to carry them both as he flew. Last winter he wasn't able to carry more than one person with him when he flew, but he had gotten stronger since then.

"No thanks, Jason," Hazel said. "Let's just walk instead."

He wasn't sure whether she had refused because she didn't like flying (a child of Pluto must hate flying), whether she thought it would be awkward to be stuck with him and Piper, or both, but he didn't argue with her. As they set off into the heart of the city, little did Jason know what terrible endeavours awaited them, more especially him.


	9. Chapter 9

IX

Jason

The sun crept lower towards the horizon as Jason and the girls searched the streets for a clothes store. Hazel was walking ahead, her white Greek dress billowing slightly in the afternoon air. Behind her, Jason walked alongside Piper, his fingers intertwined with hers. Jason was in the middle of muttering an apology to her for making her angry that time with Enzo Ferrari.

"Anyway, I'm sorry for-"

Piper laughed her pretty laugh and looked up at him. "It's Ok, Jason. In fact, I should be the one who's apologising. I didn't mean to snap at you back there. I was just stressed. Everything seemed to be going wrong for us. First Percy and Annabeth…"

His fingers tightened around hers. "Look, Pipes, I know Annabeth's your best friend, but you don't have to worry. Gaea won't kill them. And with Percy around, she'll be just fine."

"I know, but I'm not exactly reassured." She lowered her voice so that Hazel wouldn't overhear. "That kid, Nico, looks like he's scarred for life. And he's the son of Hades, he supposed to be comfortable in dark places."

"Yeah, but the two of them have been in tighter spots than this. Annabeth once told me about when they took on Kronos. That must have been terrifying, but they handled it."

"I suppose, but it's not just them I'm worried about. What about us?" Jason thought she was referring to the two of them, but before he could say anything, she continued. "Our little group. How are we meant to survive? I mean, we've lost the ship, we don't have a prophecy, Gaea could get us at any minute. I can feel her, Jason. Right now. She's here, in this city."

Jason thought for a moment. "You're right. I feel her too." It wasn't clear, but he could sense Gaea's presence anywhere. That ancient, evil power was hard not to notice. "Question is, why hasn't she attacked yet?"

Piper's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. "I don't know, but an attack is definitely coming, and it's coming soon."

There was silence, not awkward but reflective, as he pondered her words. His gaze fell across the street where two teenagers were noticeable in a throng of people. It was a boy and a girl of about sixteen, and Jason had to admit they were the strangest couple he had ever seen. For one, the girl was pretty and slender, with mousy brown hair that was tied in a messy ponytail and slightly arching eyebrows. She wore a plain black T-shirt that she had tied to the side like many Aphrodite girls did to make camp T-shirts look stylish, frame hugging blue jeans and, surprising enough, black combat boots.

Her boyfriend (Jason could only assume), well the only way Jason could describe him was by noting that he looked like Butch. Yes, Butch, the equestrian son of Iris from Camp Half-Blood. The guy was also bald, big (about Jason's height), buff and extremely intimidating. The guy screamed 'juvenile delinquent', what with a face set in a permanent frown and arms filled from shoulder to wrist with tattoos. Jason was too far to observe them all in detail, but he was willing to bet they weren't of rainbows and ponies. The guy was wearing a white wife beater that showed off his tattoos and arm muscles, dark shorts that showed his sasquatch leg hairs and worn out white sneakers with skull designs. He had his arm around the girl's shoulders but it didn't look like he was spending quality time with his girlfriend. Because he was looking at them. Both of them were, the girl over the dude's shoulder. Something about the way they looked at him and the girls made Jason uneasy, like they knew who he was. Like they-

"Look guys," Hazel said, turning towards him and Piper, bringing him out of his reverie. "A mall."

Jason looked to where she was pointing. Up ahead was a large shopping complex with large numbers of people going in and out. At last, they had found what they were looking for, after almost an hour of searching and looking at street signs and billboards in Italian. Piper dragged him behind her, her face, which was sombre like it was when she saw Percy and Annabeth together or when he mentioned Reyna, now bright with excitement. Jason knew that she wasn't happy because of the prospect of shopping. Piper was not that kind of girl. She was happy because they had found what they were looking for. Jason guessed she relished the idea of changing into fresh clothes, a feeling he had as well. He looked across the street where the strange couple had been, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Strange.

They entered the mall and looked around. It was like a regular mall, but with Italian stores in the mix. It was about three storeys high with escalators in the heart of it. They looked around for clothes shops while weaving through people. Hazel picked one randomly and entered, with Jason and Piper right behind her. Jason trudged in behind Piper, wondering why he agreed to come along. He wasn't into much shopping, and he had never shopped outside New Rome. When he did have to buy stuff he usually bought the things he needed. _Which is the case right now_, he told himself. _We are only buying things we need_.

The shopping took lesser time than he initially thought. Within minutes they were walking out of the mall with bags filled with clothes for everybody. Hazel had even insisted on buying some for Nico Nico, plain black T-shirts and black jeans. They bought enough clothes for each of them to change six times. Enough to reach Epirus. As Jason was browsing through the clothes racks, with Piper and Hazel at the other side of the store, he was aware of a familiar-looking figure that seemed to be watching him. He stole a glance. The figure looked like an Italian woman with dark hair and a white dress with a strange dark cloak-like thing on her shoulders. She approached him and he silently berated himself for not realising who she was. Her cloak was, after all, made from goat-skin.

It was Juno.

Jason was so shocked, he forgot to show respect to the goddess. "Lady Juno, what are you doing here?" he found himself blurting.

Juno glanced at the two demigod girls on the other side of the shop who seemed oblivious to her presence.

"Oh, hello, Jason," she said. "Fancy meeting you here. Don't you just love Campobasso." Jason gave her a blank look. "That's the city we're in. It's modern, but it has that Roman touch in it. It's magnificent! As to answer your question, I find myself here after I was, ah, asked to leave Mount Olympus because of my cunning plan."

Jason scratched his chin. "So you fled here, to the Ancient Lands? Don't you think that's going from the frying pan into the fire, what with the giants wanting to kill you and Porphyrion wanting to make you his wife?"

"There is danger everywhere, my hero. Besides, I now get to help you with your quest. You are my heroes, after all."

Jason regarded the goddess standing in front of him. Although he was taller than her, she radiated power that made him feel small. Was this how things were supposed to be? They needed a god to fight the giants. There were bound to be giants in the House of Hades, where they were headed. He noticed that the goat-skin cloak around her shoulders flickered and disappeared at times, and Jason thought he saw a bit of Hera. She was somewhat caught between her Greek and Roman forms, but she seemed to be handling it. Somewhat.

"That's a great offer, Lady Juno. I wouldn't want to be asking too much of you. It must be tough, having your entire family against you. But we do need you for the assault on the House of Hades."

Juno smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I cannot help you there. This war between the camps has got me incapacitated. I can hardly speak with you as it is. You are going to have to find a god who does not have ties to both camps. One who is all Roman. They should be easy to find in the homeland."

Jason thought for a moment. Maybe they could offer a sacrifice to Bellona or Pomona, but he didn't think they were in Italy, and they were probably too busy. There was also the matter of Zeus blocking all communication with Half-Bloods. Unless… His eyes widened.

"You mean _di indigetes_? I thought they had all faded."

_di indigetes_ were the traditional Roman gods that were not influenced by Greek culture, gods such as the lake gods and the weather gods. Goddesses such as Bellona were not _di indigetes_ because, although they were fully Roman, they were based on the Greek gods.

"On the contrary, many still remain. It wouldn't be the homeland without them. But be wary, Jason. Many of them do not have ties to Western civilisation, to the Olympians. Most of them will not mind if Gaea wins this war. You have tough times ahead, but never forget that you are my hero. Bearing my mark could save your life and the lives of your friends."

Jason was confused. What did she mean, her mark? Was this mark like the mark of Athena? Did he have to follow a series of clues to another statue? No, it couldn't be. The way she said 'mark' was almost like she was referring to a curse. The curse born by Achilles was often referred to as the mark of Achilles. What could this mark be, and could it be of use to him?

"That's like some sort of hero's curse, right? Heroes' curses are usually some sort of power, like Achilles' invulnerability. No offense, Lady Juno, but I don't think the powers of family and friendship are going to help us much against the giants."

Juno laughed softly and changed her form to Hera.

"Oh, but Cacus would beg to differ. So would Ares actually, but I wouldn't mention that in his presence."

Jason frowned. He didn't know much about Greek mythology. Which hero used the curse of Hera to defeat Cacus and a god?

"Ok, so do I have it now?"

"It is within you, but dormant. I will need to, ah, reactivate it when the time comes, when you are ready. The process will seem embarrassing to you modern children, just as the original process you would have found embarrassing." She sighed heavily and reverted back to the form of Juno. "I'm afraid I cannot keep up this conversation. I must leave you now."

She produced a piece of paper from nowhere and handed it to him. She placed it in his hands as if it was a precious gift. "Take this," she said. "It's the next prophecy. I gleaned it from the Oracle before I came here. May it give you all the answers you need."

With that she vanished, leaving Jason standing there confused with the prophecy clutched in one hand. Questions were swarming in his mind, questions relating to the curse of Juno and the _di indigetes_. The goddess had just left him with a library of information. Too much information to handle at once. He pocketed the prophecy. He was going to have a look at it later on during their meeting, but already the piece of paper felt heavy in his pocket. Piper and Hazel returned to him, having done all the purchases, and they left the store.

"Do you think the guys have found a hotel yet?" Piper asked Jason as they exited the mall.

"I think so. I mean, how hard can it be to book a hotel?" he replied. He decided to leave his encounter with Juno for later on.

"Let's say they did find one," Hazel said slowly. "How will they tell us about it? We don't exactly have means of communication."

Jason looked around. "I'll seek out their scent. You guys follow me. "

Piper linked her hand with his and they doubled back to the construction site, Hazel following them from behind. When they reached the deserted area, Jason turned his head to the direction the guys took and concentrated hard. His eyes were suddenly assaulted with hundreds of vapour trails on different colours and textures. He looked for trails that were stronger than the others, since demigods left stronger trails than regular mortals. That's how monsters hunted them down. Here, however, there were so many trails such that he had a hard time making out any of his friends' ones. This was hopeless. He tried to look for a trail that would resemble Leo, maybe an oily brown one with the smell of fire. Instead he saw one that was stronger and more visible than all the others. It was inky black and smelled of Happy Meals and…_sniff sniff_… and death. Jason didn't know how death smelled like but he was pretty sure it was death. This must be Nico's vapour trail. It was so thick and solid, Jason thought he could touch it. _No wonder Big Three demigods attracted so many monsters_, he thought. _They have a really strong demigod odour_. This made Jason slightly nervous. There were three Big Three demigods in their company, all with really strong odours. Right now they were a super large industrial electromagnet for monsters, especially now that they were on Gaea's territory. He suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable.

_I wonder what I smell like_, he thought.

He followed the trail away from the construction site towards a cluster of modern-_ish_ buildings. Piper and Hazel followed him without hesitation, considering they weren't seeing anything. Jason almost smiled. This was one of the times when leading seemed so simple. He wished it would always be like that. Nico's vapour trail led them to an eleven-story building which clearly looked like a hotel. It had bright neon writing which Jason couldn't make out because it was in Italian and he was dyslexic. Apparently, his brain was hardwired for Latin but not for any Latin-based languages. The trail led them to the tenth floor of the hotel into suite 1013. Jason turned the knob on the door but found it locked. He knocked slowly.

"Who's there?" said a muffled voice that was in no doubt Leo's.

"It's me, Jason," he said.

There was a slight pause. "Jason who?" Leo asked again.

"Enough knock knock jokes, Leo. Let us in." There was a rustle of chains and locks the door opened, revealing Leo in a bath robe and a towel on his head.

"Ah, Jason," he said mischievously as Jason and the girls entered the suite. "So nice of you to _Grace_ us with your presence." With that he burst out laughing, blurting out something about how he's always wanted to say that.

Piper eyed the son of Hephaestus carefully. "What have you guys been feeding him?" he asked Frank and Nico, who had also cleaned themselves up, but were still in their old clothes.

"I think this quest is getting to him," Frank said, looking worriedly at Leo.

"What took you guys so long?" Leo asked. "You guys shop like a bunch of girls." Piper and Hazel scowled at him and Jason was forced to intervene before a certain repair boy was strangled by the two girls.

"Right. Let's all get cleaned up and changed, then we can have ourselves a meeting."

They all gathered around the dining table and had their second meeting without Annabeth and Percy. They had all cleaned up and changed into the clothes Jason and the girls bought. They had just finished eating so they were now ready for more serious matters. Piper drew her knife and her friends gathered behind her, touching her back, arms and shoulders in order to be able to see into the knife. Jason watched the surface of the knife ripple…

…and saw two large whales dragging something pale and gold, along with the Argo II, on attached ropes on the sea floor. The Parthenos. _Those must be the sea cows that had looked more like regular cows back at the Argo_, Jason thought. Behind the giant dugongs, creatures that looked like horses but with fish tails carried the three mer-heroes Bill, Cyrus and Ariel. The small mer-party was shooting through the water with surprising speed. They were really swift, but Jason noticed the obvious problem.

"They still haven't reached Camp yet," he said. "The Romans and Greeks must have torn each other to bits by now."

"Way to point that out, Captain Positive," Leo said sarcastically.

The mer-party swam forward, bearing for North America…

And the image changed to Half-Blood Hill. On the Greek side of the hill, every Greek demigod was armed and ready for battle. They were arranged into units that Jason saw were the different cabins on Camp Half-Blood. There was the Ares cabin in the middle and at the top of the hill by Thalia's tree. Next to them was the Athena cabin, on their left the Apollo cabin. Next followed what Jason saw was a mix between the Demeter cabin and, surprising enough, the Aphrodite cabin. The Aphrodite kids were all armed with long phalanx spears, and each kid clung on to their spear like it was a lifeline. They looked terrified. In front of them was the cavalry. It was divided into tree units and was a mix of all the cabins on every pegasus in camp. Behind the Ares cabin was two units of the minor god cabins. Hecate spellcasters were among them, their spell books opened and glowing green runes etched all over their bodies. In the air above the Greek army was sure to make Leo grin. It was littered with the triremes from the lake, but they were all floating in the air in perfect formation. Green runes glowed from their hulls and more Greeks stood on board. It seemed like the entire Hephaestus cabin was on the ships, manning ballistae and cannons.

The Greek army stood terrible and imposing, perfect rows of Celestial bronze glittering in the morning sun. This is what they had trained for, the countless hours of capture the flag and war games had all boiled down to this. Jason thought that was as much amazement as he could take, until he looked down the Roman side of the hill.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed, especially DerangedOtakuFangirl who reviewed more than once and favourited (is that a word?) my story. Review some more and enjoy chapter 10. **

X

Jason

The Romans were divided into the Five Cohorts, with the First and Second Cohorts at the front. Each Cohort was larger than each of the Greek cabins and was arranged in a perfect square. The other three Cohorts followed behind the first two, completing some kind of backwards trident formation. Each Roman was armed with an Imperial gold spear and _gladius_. They carried rectangular Imperial gold shields and wore golden armour. Their heads were covered with golden Roman helms. Between the Cohorts, demigods, most likely Vulcan kids, manned large scorpion ballistae, cannons and various other heavy artillery weapons. In the air above, giant eagles carried Roman kids on their backs, some on their claws. A single pegasus bearing the Praetor was at the head of this areal cavalry. Centurions stood at the heads of their Cohorts shouting orders. The golden eagle, the Legion's standard was in the hands of a Centurion in the First Cohort. In front of the Cohorts was a single war elephant with a Kevlar vest. Amongst the Cohorts, Jason could see Trivia spellcasters with their spellbooks open and their staffs humming with power. Apollo archers were also among the Cohorts, their bows hidden under brilliant gold shields.

Jason watched the entire army march uphill towards the waiting Greek army. Jason almost couldn't watch. They were going to tear each other apart. The gods were going to have splitting migraines for weeks. Jason was Roman. He was supposed to look at this glorious army with pride, but he only had dread in his eyes. He couldn't pick sides. He wanted neither camp to win.

With a shout from the Greek cabin counsellors, the Greek army charged downhill, Greek kids screaming at the top of their lungs although Jason couldn't hear them. At the same time, the Roman army surged forward, their eyes gleaming with bloodlust. The Greek cavalry galloped on the ground, with surprised Jason. Why weren't they flying? The answer came as the Roman eagles dove towards the Greek cavalry, looking to pick demigods of their steeds. Before the eagles reached, cannons and ballistae from the flying triremes were fired and blasted four giant birds out of the sky. Jason watched one tumble and roll in the dirt while the Roman riding it climbed off, seemingly unhurt. The eagle riders must have been enchanted by Trivia kids to prevent such attacks. Another Roman was not so lucky. His hand could be seen twitching from underneath his eagle, for the giant bird had fallen on him as they tumbled out of the sky.

More cannons were fired and more eagles fell, but some broke through and attacked the Greek cavalry. Greek kids waved swords and spears above their heads in hopes of driving the birds away, but to no avail. The birds scratched at their armour and pecked at their skulls, with Romans hacking with their _gladii_ from the birds' backs. Greek Apollo archers fired a volley of arrows at the Second Cohort and Roman Apollo kids fired back. Some of the arrows clashed in mid-air, some Greek arrows fell on Roman shields and some Roman arrows fell on Greek shields. Others found their mark. A flaming arrow from the Romans hit one of the triremes, causing it to crash into the ground. Hephaestus campers who could still walk jumped off and ran to join the fight. Meanwhile, the demigods on foot charged each other and half-way down Half-Blood hill they clashed. The Second Battle of Half-Blood Hill had officially begun.

It was utter chaos. More than four hundred ADHD kids were trying to kill each other. Celestial bronze met Imperial gold as the Greeks and Romans battled to the death. Jason watched as the Aphrodite/Demeter unit in phalanx formation tried to skewer the Third Cohort with their long spears. He knew that in the Legion, the Venus kids fought as well, and that they were more experienced at fighting than the Aphrodite kids. Magical weapons crackled with electricity and fire, some even changing forms. Overhead, the sky above the aerial battle churned and twisted as thunderclouds brought a fierce magical storm. From the Greek side, Hecate spellcasters conjured up an intense blizzard and aimed it at the Legion, which was impressive considering it was still summer. Trivia spellcasters retaliated by summoning a thunderstorm worthy of Jupiter. The two forces of nature clashed and battled, leaving some demigods blown away in their wakes. The Legion's standard gave the Romans morale, but did not electrocute any Greeks like legend states. The Greeks released Peleus the dragon who terrorised the Fourth Cohort, but the Romans battled the fierce dragon until it crumbed to fine dust. Jason felt horror rise up to his throat like bile. The death of Peleus made him realise just how serious the situation was. Heroes were going to fall, people he knew would die, if they were not already dead.

His two homes were destroying each other.

From the Greek side of the hill the Hunters of Artemis emerged and joined the battle. Jason watched his sister Thalia lead the hunters with a grim expression. From the Roman side the Amazons climbed the hill and headed for the Greek hunters. The first immortal girls to battle were Queen Hylla and Thalia, their blades locked in mortal combat. The triremes directed their fire towards the Roman artillery which gave the Greek cavalry a chance to gallop into the sky to battle the eagles. Jason saw Bobby on eagleback aim a spear at Butch's chest…

…and the image changed to a modern city with Romanesque buildings mixed with the modern architecture. It took Jason a couple of seconds to realise which city he was looking at. It was Campobasso, the city they were in right now. Jason let out a breath. At least they were on the right track. The image was dark. The city was illuminated in bright lights indicating that it was night-time. A particular building caught Jason's eye as the knife focused on it. It had the word _Mario's_ in bright neon lights and a long line of people, mostly young women, grew from the entrance. Jason heard Piper intake a breath.

"It's a nightclub," she said, surprise showing on her face. "Why is a nightclub relevant to our mission?"

"I'm not complaining," Leo said. "The Fates probably figured we need a break and are rewarding us..."

A scowl from Piper caused him to lapse into silence. Jason continued to watch the surface of the knife. At the head of the line stood a group of girls that looked about a year or two older than them. They were chatting excitedly and giggling. All were dressed in revealing party outfits. One of them in particular caught Jason's eye. She looked younger than her friends yet she was clearly the group leader. She was, funny enough, wearing a striped soccer jersey with black jeans. The knife focused on her features for a few seconds…

…and the image changed to a familiar-looking ancient Roman city overlooking a mountain. The city was in ruins, its columns stunted and covered in solidified ash. Jason saw one ruined building sitting directly in line with the hazy mountain. It was a temple of Jupiter. Jason's gaze was drawn, not by the city, but by the mountain itself. It seemed to be shaking and trembling with rocks tumbling down its sides. Thick black smoke billowed out of it, forming a ghastly tree in the sky. _Like a mushroom cloud_, Jason thought. The smoke became thicker, the cloud-tree larger. Suddenly the mountain peak exploded. Liquid fire poured out of it, exploding like deadly soup left for too long on the flames. The sight was spectacular. Jason had seen volcanic eruptions before, he had gone on a quest once to Hawaii. But this one was different. For one, a giant rose from the fiery depths of the mountain. He looked larger than the twin giants they had fought in Rome. In fact, he looked almost Porphyrion's height. He was completely encased in lava, his hair braided with pieces of volcanic rock that glowed red in the heat of the eruption. He extended a hand to the heavens and opened his mouth in a fierce roar, and the image disappeared and the knife took on its normal hue.

The demigods returned to their respective seats. Jason sat next to Piper. There was brief silence as they thought about what they had seen. Leo broke the silence.

"This is bad," he said. "The camps are tearing each other to pieces. By the time the statue reaches camp, it will already be too late."

Everyone looked distraught by the battle they had just witnessed.

"So what do we do now?" Frank asked.

"We continue forward," Piper answered him. "We head for Athens."

"What about the last image?" asked Hazel. "What does it mean?"

Piper frowned slightly. "I don't know. The knife doesn't only show present images. It can also show the past…and the future."

Jason looked his girlfriend with sympathy. He knew how seeing the future made her feel. It disturbed her to see all these things, knowing that she couldn't do anything to prevent them. But something told him he should know that city. And that mountain.

"I don't think it's the past," he said. "Anything Piper has seen to do with the giants has been in the future. Besides, I haven't heard of any volcanic eruptions recently."

"It's not like we need to go there, right?" Leo said. "I mean, it's not like we always need to be where giants are."

"I think we have to, Leo," Jason answered him. "That lava giant may cause an eruption that could kill thousands of people."

"Jason's right," Nico said. "Your quest is to defeat the giants. It makes sense to seek them out."

"Problem is," Frank started, "we don't know where this giant is."

Pieces were starting to fall together in Jason's mind.

"I think I know where it is," he told them. "A volcanic mountain, in Italy presumably, there's one famous one. Mount Vesuvius. I think we have to travel to Pompeii."

"Pompeii?" Piper asked. "I've never heard of it. But I do know where Mount Vesuvius is. It's towards the south. Looks like we're headed in the right direction."

"Seems so. Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was destroyed by the volcano. What I don't know is why the lava giant has his lair there. The city has been in ruins for centuries. It's not like there's much people to destroy."

"Hang on," Hazel said. "I don't think Pompeii is the only city around the mountain. There's more modern cities now."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Naples was built near the mountain."

Jason felt his stomach drop. Naples was a major city with millions of people. If the volcano was to erupt…

"Who is this lava dude anyway?" Leo asked.

"I think we're about to find out," Jason replied. He told them about his encounter with Juno. He placed the piece of paper she had given him on the table. "It's the next prophecy. Let's find out what it's says." He unfurled the piece of paper and began reading it aloud.

"Foes bear arms at the Doors of Death

An oath to keep with a final breath

Two half-bloods bear a hero's curse

With heroes' blood the king is nursed

A giant clad in a molten gown

The Eldest rise where shadows drown."

There was silence as they all thought about what the prophecy meant. Jason's mind was in turmoil. Here was the hero's curse again. Was it that important for him to accept Juno's blessing? What would happen if he did accept?

"Oh great," Leo said at last. "Now we _have_ to go to lava guy."

'_A giant clad in a molten gown_," Hazel said. "That must be the lava giant. But who is he?"

Frank looked deep in thought. "It must be the giant born to oppose Vulcan. Or Apollo."

"Whoever he is, he must be stopped," Piper said, and sighed slightly. "This prophecy is more confusing than the last. Who are the Eldest? What king will be nursed?"

"Yeah," Leo agreed. "And what's this hero's curse? It doesn't sound very good."

Jason took a deep breath. He had to tell his friends.

"Um, guys?" he started. "I think I may have an idea about what that is." He told them the rest of Juno's message.

"So you have the hero's curse?" Frank asked.

"Not yet," Jason replied. "Juno said she will give it to me when the time was right."

"When the time is right?" Leo asked incredulously. "Is there a right time to receive a curse?"

"It's not a negative curse, Leo," Jason said. "It's more like a gift. At least that's what Juno said."

"So Jason's the first half-blood with a curse," Hazel said. "Who's the second?"

They all looked around at each other.

"I hope it's not me," Leo said. "After the fortune cookie incident, I really do not need more bad luck."

"It could be anyone," Piper said. "It could even be Nico."

Everyone turned to look at the son of Hades. He shook his head.

"It can't be me," he said. "I'm just a guide. I'm not part of the prophecy. It has to be one of you guys."

Jason wanted to argue with him, but what he said made sense.

"Look, we'll worry about the curse later." He paused. "Juno also mentioned _di indigetes_. They might help us with fighting the giants, since the gods are still incapacitated."

"_di_ what?" Frank asked.

"_di indigetes_. Traditional Roman gods that were not influenced by the Greeks. We still need a god to help us with the lava giant. Maybe they could help."

"Maybe they could," Piper said. "But hopefully by the time we reach Epirus the gods will have snapped out of it and join the fight."

"It would be nice to fight alongside my dad," Leo added.

Jason could only nod. He had never seen Jupiter in person, much less fought alongside him. The Romans rarely saw their immortal parents, and if they did it was for some important quest. No Roman has ever been to Olympus. The closest Jason has ever been to his dad was when Jupiter helped him defeat Enceladus and injure Porphyrion. Apparently the Greeks could stay in contact with their parents. All Jason could get was a stepmom that was planning to curse him.

"Yeah," Frank agreed. "But in the meanwhile we're alone. What about Percy and Annabeth? Why didn't the knife show them to us?"

The mood around the table was grim. The last they had heard of the pair they were in deep dark Tartarus fighting an unkillable giant spider. Who knew what they were doing now.

"Maybe this is good news," Hazel said uncertainly. "Maybe the knife only shows them they are in danger."

Jason wanted to believe Hazel. He really did. Too bad the other child of the Underworld had other ideas.

"I doubt it," Nico said. "They'll be extremely lucky to go for this long without getting captured." Nico ran his hand through his messy hair nervously. "Something else I forgot to mention." All eyes were on him now. "If Annabeth and Percy stay in Tartarus for longer than five days, they'll be stuck there…"

Jason's face blanched. "Forever?" he managed to say.

Nico nodded grimly, his pale face illuminated harshly by the room's lights.

"Then we have to do something," Hazel almost shrieked. "We have to leave this city now."

"We can't," Jason said. "Not yet. We still need to find that girl in the knife."

"You mean that really hot one with bad fashion sense?" Leo said. "Does anybody know who she is?"

It was clear none of them had ever met this girl.

"She's probably another mortal brought back by Gaea to make our lives a misery," Piper said. "But I suppose we have to go check her out."

"I know I'd like to," Leo said with a slight grin. "Anyone else want to come with me?"

"No thanks," Hazel said. "I'll stay here. Why don't you guys go," she motioned at Leo, Frank and Nico, "since you got to relax while we went shopping."

"I think I'll sit this one out," Nico said. "I need a nap right about now."

"I'll go with them," Jason volunteered. He didn't like the idea of sitting back with the others went on this mini-quest. He was their leader, after all. He glanced at Piper, to see if she wanted to come as well, but she shook her head and gave him a look that said, _it's fine go ahead_.

Leo rubbed his hands mischievously. "Alright boys," he said to Frank and Jason. "Let's go clubbing."

**A/N: I'm not too sure about the dialogue in this chapter. It took me the entire morning to write it out. Tell me what you think. Next chapter, real trouble begins and we finally find out what this curse of Juno really is, so stay tuned! **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hello everyone. Apologies for taking so long to update, I've been swamped with school work. The chapter after this is in Tartarus in Annabeth's POV, isn't that exciting?**

XI

Jason

Before he met the crazy diety, Jason felt hopeful. They had found the club _Mario's_ pretty quickly (only after an hour and a half of searching). The sun had set and it was already dark. Leo had insisted they change what they were wearing and put on something cool. Jason had to remind him that they weren't going to party, that they were on an important mission. Jason wore a purple T-shirt and dark blue jeans that they had gotten at the mall. The shirt greatly resembled his Camp Jupiter shirt which was worn out during by their crazy adventures. Frank wore a simple shirt and pants as well, but for Leo that was too simple, or rather, too much. Leo wore a wife beater he had hastily designed himself by cutting off the sleeves and much of the shoulders. His skinny arms lay bare with freshly drawn tattoos on them. The makeshift wife beater had the trademark TEAM LEO written across it. He even managed to get his hands on cologne which now hung off him in clouds. Jason was sure if he used his powers of tracking, he would find that the cologne has masked his demigod scent.

Getting into the club had been easy enough. Jason had simply walked up to the bouncer and waved a hand in front of his face, manipulating the Mist as he did so. It was a trick he learnt in Camp Jupiter when he was fourteen.

"We're on the VIP list," he had said to the big man. Luckily for him the bouncer spoke English or else their plan would have failed dismally. Jason also convinced him that they were past legal age and the bouncer let them through.

"Whoa," Leo had exclaimed as they walked into the noisy club. "That was so cool, what you did back there. I didn't know you could do Jedi Mind Tricks."

"It's manipulating the Mist," Jason had said. "I'm surprised Chiron hasn't taught you yet. It's really easy."

Now they stood leaning against the railing, looking down at the dance floor from the floor above. The music was so loud, the only way to hear each other was by shouting into each other's ears. Leo moved his head about as if he was enjoying the music while Frank stood there uncomfortably. Jason scanned the crowd below with his sharp eyesight. It seemed like they had come too early. The girl was not here yet. Doubt started flowing into his mind. What if she wasn't coming tonight? The knife didn't say it was tonight. What if it was tomorrow night?

His thoughts were halted when she saw her.

She was just like he had seen her in the knife. Her dark hair was flowing behind her as she giggled with her friends. Something about her was different. Jason knew that she wasn't a regular mortal. But what was she then? Jason asked himself. He turned his head to Frank and shouted into his ear.

"I've found her! Look, there she is!" He pointed his finger at the girl as she went deeper into the dancefloor.

As Frank was showing Leo the girl, Jason watched her closely. She didn't look like she was looking for someone, or anticipating anything. She was just having fun. He decided to look at the people around her. Maybe she needed to be saved from a monster in the club. But who was she? There were some guys eyeing her, but Jason figured it was because they found her hot. It was nothing sinister.

Until he looked at the DJ.

He didn't know how his gaze fell on him, but it did. The DJ was a guy in his early twenties, maybe his late teens. He looked Italian with back hair and olive skin, but Jason was too far to see him in great detail. The guy had his gaze fixed on the girl. Even from where he was Jason could see that the gaze wasn't filled with desire or lust. It was filled with anticipation. The guy's gaze never wavered. He just kept on staring at her. Jason decided it was time to act.

He called Frank and Leo and the three of them headed for the mystery girl. They descended the stairs and found themselves on the dancefloor. Heat clung to them like a haze as they wove between dancing bodies. A drunk girl grabbed Jason's arms and pulled him in for a dance, but he graciously extricated himself and continued forward. The smell of perfume mixed with sweat was making him feel dizzy. Now that he was on the ground, he had lost his sense of direction. A few seconds later he spotted the girl as she danced with her friends. As he approached, she turned and looked him in the eye. Even though he was almost a head taller than her, he almost withered under her gaze.

Now that she was closer, Jason was able to look at her properly. She looked young, almost his age. Her dark hair was almost messy as she had been whipping it back and forth. She was very beautiful, but her beauty was more wild and youthful. She was the perfect party girl. He was now standing directly in front of her. She leaned in to shout something in his ear.

"Aren't you a bit young for clubs?!" she asked.

"Aren't you?!" Jason couldn't resist shouting back.

She laughed, but her laugh was lost to the noise.

"Smart guy, huh?!"

Jason didn't know how to proceed. He decided to get straight to the point.

"We're on demigod business!" he shouted.

She stopped laughing and looked him up and down. "Demigod, you say?! Figures! You must be a son of Jupiter!"

Jason was getting more nervous by the second. This girl was definitely not a mortal.

She turned to Leo and Frank. "The short one has Vulcan written all over him!" Leo scowled. He obviously didn't like being referred to as short. But wait, Jason thought. How did Leo hear that? She didn't shout into his ear. Leo was about six feet away from her. Her voice couldn't have possibly carried that far.

"And you, big guy?!" she continued whilst looking at Frank. Who's your mommy or daddy?! I can't tell!"

"Who are you?!" Jason asked her.

She turned her attention to him. "Ooh, so impatient! You remind me of my husband! He's a son of Jupiter too, you know! You even look like him!"

Achelous' words came to Jason's mind. All sons of Zeus were meant to be womanizing jerks. But Jason knew he was different. He would never do that to Piper. But this girl, who was now standing close to him and smiling up at him mischievously, was married to a son of Zeus. She looked too young to be married, but then again, since she wasn't mortal…

She inched closer to Jason and placed her hands on his upper arms. She inhaled deeply, like she was taking in his scent. Jason shifted uncomfortably.

"You're even as strong as him," she continued. Her voice had lowered but he could still hear her fine. "I smell his curse on you."

Jason frowned. She had just called him strong. He knew he was stronger than the average sixteen year old, but someone from the world of gods and monsters calling him strong just wasn't right. He tried to think. _A son of Zeus who's known for his strength._ Jason almost cursed himself. How could it take him this long to figure it out, since this particular half-brother of his was the most famous demigod ever, and they had just met him on their quest.

"You're married to Hercules?!" he shouted.

She smiled. "Not a dumb blond after all. I am Juventas, goddess of youth. Now come dance with me."

All Jason could think was, _well that explains her shirt_. He didn't know much about soccer, but the shirt had the words Juventus FC on it. She inched closer to him and swayed about, her hand pushing her hair back like a real party girl.

"Aren't you supposed to be on Olympus?!" Jason asked.

"Ah! Stop that! Don't mention that place!" Suddenly her form flickered and changed. Her hair became blonde and the soccer shirt turned into a black sorority shirt with golden Greek letters on it. She gripped her head, her face twisting in agony. It took her a few seconds to recover. "As you can see-"

"Jason!" he told her.

"-Jason, I am staying as far away from Olympus as I can. I heard Zeus can't even lift his left pinkie at the moment." She continued with her rhythmic dance. "Besides, the parties here are great. Italy's the best place to be when you're young. Now come on, Jason! Show me that you're a son of Jupiter. I'm tired of all these weak mortals."

She glanced at the DJ as she said this. His eyes were still fixed on her. The expression on his face showed slight anger. Who was this guy? Jason couldn't think straight. Juventas was now so close to him, they were touching. She continued groping his arms and smiling at him mischievously, forcing him to take an instinctive step back.

"Look, Juventas! You're a great girl-goddess-whatever, but I have a girlfiend!"

The youth goddess didn't even blink. "Since when has a son of Jupiter been satisfied by just one woman. Have some fun, sweety."

"But-" Jason was running out of excuses. "But you're married!"

"Hercules? I haven't seen him in a thousand years. Ever since he took that guardian of the Mediterranean job. Besides, he's overrated. You're younger." She brushed his cheek. "And more handsome."

"Sorry, you're not really my type!" he shouted as he took a more steps back. She followed.

"For a son of Jupiter, every girl is your type."

Jason looked around, searching for a distraction. Frank and Leo stood watching the ordeal. Frank had worry etched on his face while Leo looked on with a mixture of amusement and envy. Once again, Jason's eyes fell on the DJ stand. It was empty. The turntables continued to spin and the decks automatically mixed dance music. Worry began to build up in his throat. Where did the guy go?

His question was answered as he saw the DJ strolling up to them deliberately. He reached them and grabbed Juventas' arm while he stared at Jason. Jason's hand fell to his side where his _gladius_ was strapped. The guy was about two inches taller than him. From up close, he could see that he was handsome, a typical Italian guy that girls probably went mad over. He didn't look like a monster at all.

He started talking to her in rapid Italian, sometimes gesturing towards Jason. She looked the guy straight in the eyes as he talked. Something about the way her eyes darted from his left eye to his right reminded Jason of a soap opera. Juventas yanked her arm from his grasp dramatically.

"Let go of me!" she said in English. "I am a goddess! I can do whatever I want!"

She turned to Jason and placed her hands on either side of his cheeks. She stood on her tiptoes and gently pulled his face towards hers. Suddenly, Jason was aware of his surroundings. He heard the rhythmic pulsing of club music die away as the goddess' face obscured his vision. The dank heat was replaced by a cool breeze. They were no longer in the club.

Jason removed her hands from her face, taking a step back as he did so. He looked around, taking in his new surroundings. They were in a hotel suite, similar to the one his team had booked. A soft breeze blew in through the tan curtains.

"Where are we?" he asked her. "Why did you bring me here."

Juventas laughed softly. "Relax, Jason. We're still in Campobasso. As to why I brought you here…"

She took a step towards him. Jason felt his cheeks heating.

"You want to- I mean you want us to-" he spluttered. "I-I can't. Piper-"

"So that's what your little girlfriend is called. Don't worry, she doesn't have to know."

Before she could lay her hands on Jason again, a bright flash lit up the room and the goddess Juno appeared. Her face was set with a stern scowl that was directed at Juventas.

"Mother," the Youth goddess chimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Juno's your mother?" Jason asked her. "Then that means we're…"

He couldn't finish the sentence. He knew that the godly side of his family was complicated, but he just couldn't think of this girl who was just hitting on him as his half-sister.

Juno sighed loudly. "Dear gods, child. Leave the boy alone. He's trying to save all of us and you try to take advantage of him."

"But mother, I was just-"

"No buts, Juventus! Leave now or so help me Jupiter I will ground you for a century!"

With a sigh of submission, the young goddess vanished, leaving Jason and Juno alone in the room. Jason was about to sig in releaf, but then he remembered that the Queen of the gods was still in the room.

"Looks like I timed my entrance perfectly," she said. "Who knows what she would have done if I wasn't around."

"Yeah," Jason agreed. "Lucky me. Is she always like this?"

"Not always. She gets a bit wild every time Olympus is in trouble. She also seems to be having problems with her mortal lover."

Jason was about to ask who that was when the pieces suddenly clicked together. Of course, he thought.

"The DJ guy?" he asked.

Juno nodded, though her face became darker. "It seems she was trying to make him jealous, in a way. I shall not waste time discussing my daughter's love life, for it is not the reason why I am here."

Jason remembered what the Youth goddess said when they first met.

"Juventas mentioned that I have Hercules' curse. I'm guessing it's the same as the curse you gave me earlier today."

Juno smiled. "You are mistaken, young hero. I gave you that curse when you were just a baby, and it has laid dormant unti now. But yes, it is the same curse."

Jason tried to remember the myth. Hercules, or rather Heracles, had a long and violent history with Hera. She was the reason he had to perform his famous Twelve Labours. Hera had driven him mad and caused him to kill his first wife. But before then, Jason's knowledge was gaping. He vaguely knew there was something about the Milky Way…

"I'll save you the trouble," Juno said. "I cared for Hercules when he was still a baby, as a mother would care for his own child." Her face looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "I even breastfed him."

"I remember now." It was all coming back to him. "He bit your, um- and the spilled milk formed the Milky Way. And that's where he got his strength from."

"That is correct. This is where you come in, Jason, for I cared for you just like I did for Hercules."

So that was the curse of Juno. It was Hercules' curse. It was his strength.

It was almost too much for Jason to take. "But I've never been super strong."

"Your strength has stayed hidden until the time you needed it the most, and you need it for this quest. That is why I'm here. I have to awaken it."

Confusion was swirling around his mind but he managed to ask, "How?"

Juno took a step towards him, grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him.

It was a brief kiss, like one of those goodbye kisses you receive from your mom on the first day of pre-school. It still made Jason rear backwards in shock.

"What was that for?" he asked, bewildered.

"I couldn't very well breastfeed you now, could I, so I had to do something equally embarrassing.

The goddess didn't look pleased with what she had done. In fact, she looked almost disgusted. Jason may be her champion, but he was still a demigod, a child of Jupiter, and she didn't like his kind very much.

"Well," he started awkwardly. "In that case, thank you, Lady Juno."

"Use the curse well, young hero. Great dangers await you and your friends in Greece."

With those words she vanished, leaving Jason standing alone in the hotel room. He flexed his bicep experimentally, but it was still the same as before. _I don't feel very strong_, he thought. He still couldn't believe it. He had a hero's curse. The prophecy was slowly unravelling. But who was the second hero. Would they get a curse that's as helpful as his? Jason decided to get back to his friends. They would help him figure this whole thing out.

Finding the club again took him almost thirty minutes when flying. He landed behind a garbage bin and set out to find Leo and Frank. He found them near the CD decks watching Juventas and the DJ dude arguing. The dude had an anxious look on his face while the goddess carried a look of defiance. The DJ seemed to be gesturing frantically from Frank and Leo to the exit.

Leo was the first to spot Jason.

"Dude, you're back," he said. "You won't believe-"

"You, demigod," the DJ said to Jason in heavily accented English. "You have to get her out of here. They are coming for her."

Before Jason could ask who was coming for her, Juventas said, "I can take care of myself, Antonio."

"I know that, _mi amore_, but these guys are very powerful. They want to capture you. I cannot lose you to them."

The couple was so intent on gazing into each other's eyes that they did not notice the new arrivals in the club. But Jason did. It was the strange couple they had seen earlier that day. They were still as Jason remembered them; the dude big and intimidating and the girl slender yet tough-looking. The only difference was that they now wore Imperial gold armour. Italian Butch had a gladius hanging from his belt and the girl had twin gladii in crossed scabbards on her lower back. They stopped near the entrance and exchanged a few words while staring in Jason's direction. Jason gripped the hilt of his sword in anticipation. Frank and Leo sense the upcoming confrontation and they stood on either side of Jason. These kids were clearly demigods, and they were clearly enemies. _What do they want with Juventas_, he thought.

Italian Butch (Bucc, Jason joked to himself drily) took a step forward and closed his eyes in concentration. Suddenly the lights flickered and the music stopped playing. There were cries of complaint throughout the club, but Jason was too focused on Bucc to pay heed. The lights went out completely, plunging the club into darkness.

"Juventas, get outta here!" Jason shouted as the crowd panicked and headed for the exits.

The goddess complied without further hassle and disappeared, taking Antonio the DJ with her. Leo ignited his hand which cast a dim light across the room. Bucc was now standing right in front of them, the shadows cast by Leo's flame dancing across his face. The girl was right behind him. His sword was drawn.

"Well, well," he said. If it isn't the Heroes of Olympus. Where is the goddess?"

Jason drew his own blade which glinted dangerously in the firelight. The dancefloor was almost empty.

"She's no longer here," Jason replied.

"What do you want with her?" Frank asked.

The girl stood in step with Bucc. "Our patron will find her most useful."

So they worked for Gaea. Figures.

"Well, you just missed her," Leo said. "Now you have to deal with us."

Bucc inhaled, relishing a fight, and the lights came back on.

"Even better," he said. "Our patron will reward us greatly for bringing her the heads of three of the Seven."

"Bring it on, Italian Butch," Leo said, and charged him with his hammer.


End file.
